


Blue to Black

by PuppetMaster55



Series: Black and Blue and Blue and Black [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ANTOK LIVES, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Black Paladin Lance (Voltron), M/M, Spoilers for Season 3, THACE LIVES Y'ALL, blue paladin shiro, loosely follows s3 storyline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2018-12-17 15:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 123,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11854587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppetMaster55/pseuds/PuppetMaster55
Summary: sequel to Black to Bluein the wake of Lance's return and Zarkon's defeat, team Voltron is dealing with major changes in both universes. Lance finds himself standing in the shadow of a missing leader, while Takashi is dealing with the loss of his leader and love. Meanwhile, the Galra Empire finds itself in need of new leadership to keep itself from fracturing beyond repair.





	1. Blue

In the wake of the battle, too many things happened that needed attention. The Castle had sustained damage from Zarkon's reflected ion blast, and the repairs needed their attention. Thace and Antok were injured, and needed power to the med bay for their cryopods. Allura's battle against Haggar and her destruction of the Komar left her collapsing and in need of care herself.

Shiro was gone.

The thought kept running through Lance's mind, long after they left Black's cockpit. Shiro was gone. Vanished, possibly left to float in the wreckage of Zarkon's robeast armor exploding, left within easy grasp of Zarkon's central command.

It almost didn't matter that they'd just defeated Zarkon, because there were still the other commanders, still the many systems that were still suffering under the Galra Empire. It almost didn't matter that the Castle was picking up more and more communications from systems that were in open rebellion, asking for others to do the same, asking for aid to overthrow the Galra.

Shiro was gone, and the Black Lion lay quiet, silent, all but dead. Lance couldn't even hear her in his mind, couldn't hear the wind or the birds or the expanse of the sky. He was back in his universe, and he wished he wasn't. Not if it was at the cost of their Black Paladin, not if it lost them Shiro.

Lance stared up at Black, feeling every inch small compared to her vastness. He avoided going inside her, after that first time. He tried to avoid her place in the main hangar, but the immobile Black Lion was too great a presence, drawing everyone to her at one point or another. It felt she'd become a black hole, pulling everything and everyone toward her in the hopes of filling the emptiness she'd once had.

 

Pulling away from Black, Lance moved toward the elevator. This late at night, no one else would be awake. It was safe enough for him to move, and put his thoughts together. He hadn't been asked about his time in the other universe, with the Shiro-shaped hole in their lives, and he was reluctant to talk about his time there. The battle, his return, Zarkon's defeat, Shiro's disappearance, all of it happened too fast. Lance needed time to process it all, time to decompress after the whirlwind day.

The elevator started down, and Lance blinked, pulled from his thoughts as it dropped down to the engines. The doors opened, revealing a madly bickering Slav and Coran, and a beleaguered Kolivan. Trying to follow the discussion, Lance shook his head in defeat, choosing to focus in on Kolivan.

“Don't any of you ever sleep?” he asked, looking between the three in disbelief. “It's been a long quintant. Do Galra or Bytor even rest?”

“We do!” Slav replied, turning toward Lance. He perked up, rushing over to look closely at Lance. “Ah! You are the true Blue Paladin of this universe! It's very nice to meet you in this reality. I liked your other self well enough, but he was far too purple.” Slav gave Lance a once-over, and Lance really wasn't sure if he should feel flattered or creeped out by the whole thing. Slav nodded approvingly. “You are more blue, though. But you should keep a close eye on that purple. In 78.695 percent of all possible realities–”

“I lose the Blue Lion?” Lance dryly finished for him, taking a step back. “I've already been in a reality where I don't pilot Blue, don't—don't tell me the odds of that happening here.”

Lance yawned, falling back against the elevator wall. Coran hummed.

“You should be resting,” he noted. Cracking open an eye, Lance looked over the others.

“So should you,” Lance commented. “Don't be the pot calling the kettle black.” The three aliens stared at Lance, bemused. He sighed. “It's— nevermind. Too complicated to explain and my brain's already had to do enough today.”

“And that's exactly why you should be resting,” Coran gently said. The elevator stopped, and he curled an arm over Lance's shoulders, pulling Lance out into the hallway. “Come along now, young one. I have enough help as it is. You've done more than enough for this quintant. Take a few vargas to get some rest, the Castle will still be functioning when you wake.”

“Paladin,” Kolivan called out. Lance paused, turning with Coran to view the Blade curiously. Kolivan tilted his head in curiosity, as if regarding Lance for the first time. “Lance. It is... good to meet the real you. Your other self was very quick to concern himself in the affairs of his allies, and quicker to care for all he met. I can only hope that you are half the Paladin he is.”

Lance grimaced, looking away guiltily. A thought sparked across his mind, and he straightened up, giving Kolivan an intense look. “You sent us on a mission to retrieve Mavrodite in the other universe.”

“Ah!” Slav perked up, moving forward. Kolivan followed behind, still looking at Lance curiously. “Yes. I needed it to complete the gravity engine. There are only 0.0683 percent of possible realities where I do not need it.”

“Kotak,” Lance said. “Did he—is he–”

Kolivan looked at Lance a moment longer, before slowly shaking his head. Lance felt a dull ache in his chest, a tightness that settled in and wouldn't let loose.

“He never made it off the base,” Kolivan finally said. He sounded as sad about it as Lance felt. “I... I was unaware that he had shared his identity with your other self. His death should not have been.”

“Come along, young one,” Coran gently said, nudging Lance back into motion. “You've already made mention of how long a quintant it's been. It's long past due you got some rest yourself, Lance.”

Lance nodded, allowing Coran to lead him down toward his bedroom. “I guess we'll talk later, Kolivan. Get some rest yourself. You had a big battle to fight too.”

* * *

His bedroom was just like he remembered it, down to the placement of his blue lion slippers. The blue pajamas were familiar too, and fit him just as snugly as they always had. If he wasn't so exhausted, Lance doubted he'd have fallen asleep so easily, or as quickly as he had.

After two weeks of sharing a bed with Takashi, going back to sleeping alone felt like a trial itself. It made Lance glad when he woke from a dead sleep, nearly rolling out of bed as he steadily grew into consciousness.

The breakfast table was quiet and tense, no one speaking to each other, everyone more concerned with their own little bowls of food goo. Lance almost asked Hunk why he hadn't made his pancakes before remembering – he wasn't in that universe. All they had to eat here was food goo, Lance wasn't the leader to take them foraging, wasn't the one to award Voltron points. Not that he'd ever really done either of those, being that it was his other self, the one who looked at him, who hugged him and told him—

_“I'm so proud of you.”_

Lance shivered, clearing his throat and swallowing his heart back down into his chest. He ate a huge spoonful of food goo, letting the bitter taste eat away at his own feelings on that matter. Now wasn't the time for Lance to get preoccupied with his own problems, not with Zarkon defeated and Shiro missing.

“Paladins,” Allura began, walking into the room. She looked over all of them, pausing at Slav and Kolivan sitting across from Keith and Pidge, She nodded at Kolivan, giving him a hesitant smile. “I have had the chance to rest, and with Coran and Slav's combined efforts, the Castle is in working order after the hit Zarkon inflicted upon it.”

“With Zarkon's downfall, there will be a number of his commanders who will attempt to assume power,” Kolivan continued at Allura's nod. “The Blade's information is not as up to date as I would like, and with Thace and Antok both healing from their wounds, it is up to me alone to lead the Blade and coordinate efforts to locate each of these commanders.”

“As much as we would like to believe that taking down Zarkon alone would be enough, it apparently is not,” Allura finished. “Which is why I propose that our alliance with the Blade of Marmora continue indefinitely. Together, we shall accomplish a far greater victory than if we worked separately.”

“Did you take down the witch?” Lance asked, looking from Allura to Kolivan. Allura winced, glancing away— ashamed? Lance filed that reaction away for later. If she wanted to talk about it, then he should let her come to him. If she even wanted to talk to Lance about whatever happened, that was.

“I...” Allura hesitated. “Certain facts were not known when we made our confrontation. Rest assured that the weapon used to drain Voltron of its quintessence will never bring harm to the universe ever again.”

“And what about Shiro?” Keith asked, glaring up at Allura. “We're not leaving him behind. He's still out there. We left him behind. We need to get him back.”

“Cool your jets, Keith,” Lance said, pushing away from the table. “The Castle needed time for repairs. We're totally going to go after Shiro.”

“Which is why I will be making a teludav jump back to the Yggis Galaxy later this quintant,” Allura continued before Keith could reply. “We will perform a scan for Shiro's biosignature. Both the Castle and the Lions are able to set their scanners to locate a specific biosignature, and we have Shiro's in the database from his time in the cryopods.”

“Why aren't we already doing that?” Keith all but demanded, gripping his spoon tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

“The Castle's teludav can only take so much strain,” Allura replied. “While we did use the teludav crafted on Olkarion, I had to channel the energies to power it through the Castle's own teludav. I would not dare attempt a teludav jump without letting a full quintant pass. We have only recently fixed it, I do not wish to be the cause of the teludav breaking a second time.”

“Can't we risk it?” Keith pleaded. “It's Shiro. He's out here without Black or—or anyone else.”

Lance winced, looking away. He recalled Keith's trial with the Blade, how the person Keith most wanted to see when pushed to his limits was Shiro.

“I want Shiro back as much as any of you,” Allura replied, barely keeping emotion out of her voice. “But we must be careful about this. It has been less than a quintant since Zarkon fell, and after ten kilopheebs of his rule, we have no idea what state the universe will be in. We cannot afford to show any sort of weakness, not now.”

Keith nodded, looking like he hated being in agreement.

“Okay, are we just not going to talk about the klanmuirl in the room?” Pidge spoke up. “Lance _came back_. What made that happen?”

“Haggar,” Allura replied before Lance could. “We were... mistaken about the source behind this switch. Zarkon was not involved at all, it appears. Haggar's— her dark magics was what caused the wormhole to collapse. Her magics powered the Komar. She—she was the one behind the switch. Not Zarkon.”

Lance tilted his head, looking over Allura in concern. The way she stumbled over that part about Haggar. There was something else there, something more.

“There really wasn't all that much of a difference between the realities,” Lance offered, giving Pidge a soft smile as he shrugged helplessly. “If you guys still met Ulaz and there was still that zombeast at the Balmera, then I really don't know what to tell you.” He paused, raising a finger. “Oh, there was a couple things.”

“I'm going to stop you right there,” Hunk interrupted, holding up his hand. “If this is about our romantic lives in that other universe, I already heard too much about it. I don't want to hear any more.”

Lance closed his mouth, nodding. His hand lowered to his side. After a moment, he opened his mouth again. “I learned that Pidge's real last name is Holt.”

“What?” Pidge stared at Lance in confusion before humming in affirmative. “Oh yeah. I kind of figured you knew, since Hunk is your best friend.”

“He is,” Lance confirmed. “But he never told me.”

“It's true,” Hunk added. “I told Lance I figured it out from reading your diary, but beyond that I never actually said what your real name was.”

“Well, now I know,” Lance replied. “Now let's finish this food goo and get to searching for Shiro.”

* * *

The debris field scattered across Yggis Galaxy seemed so much larger, without Zarkon's command ship in the midst of it. Broken bits of metal and pieces of ships ranging from a fleet warship to the fighter drones were scattered throughout the area. To one side, the broken skeleton of Zarkon's armor floated, dark and foreboding. The chest was torn open, a gaping hole through it, too large for Voltron's sword to have made, like an explosion had happened within, and then something had dug out the remains inside.

Lance shivered as Allura pulled up the scans.

“The debris field is larger than I anticipated,” Allura said, looking out at it uncertainly. “I'm not sure that the Castle's scanners can pick up Shiro from within all of this. There may be too much inteference.”

“I'm going out,” Keith declared, heading toward the red pillar. “You said the Lions have their own bioscanners. I'm going to fly through the debris myself. If the Castle won't pick Shiro out of all this, then Red will.”

Lance watched Keith go, feeling like he should say something.

“Keith,” he called out. Keith froze, shoulders squaring up. “Keep your comms open. We'll stick around as long as we can, but it's still possible that the Galra picked him up.”

“Don't say that,” Keith growled, resuming his march into the red pillar. “Shiro isn't back there. He's _here_. He's not with them.”

“We can't stay here forever, dude,” Hunk pointed out, and Lance nodded in agreement. He gestured for Keith to listen to Hunk, despite knowing that Keith still had his back turned to them. “We can't put a stop on saving the universe. Even if we _did_ , you know, save the universe.”

“We won't stop looking for him,” Lance added. “Even if he isn't here anymore, we won't stop looking for him. We save the universe by day, search for our missing leader by night.”

Keith turned back to Lance, giving him a complicated look, and let the pillar close around him. A moment later, Red shot out of the Castle.

“I'm _not_ giving up on Shiro,” Keith growled over the comms. “I _will_ find him. And this time it won't take me a year.”

Lance smiled, feeling the bittersweetness of it in his lips. It was full quintant since they last saw or heard from Shiro. He was sure that, if Shiro really was floating out there, they would have heard his voice on the comms. Which only meant that Shiro had been ejected by Black and taken by the Galra when they retreived Zarkon's body, or...

Lance glanced at the podium that led down to Black's hangar. The astral plane – and Black – had already proven possible to teleport others. It was possible, an absurd idea but possible, that Black had sent Shiro away for his own safety, at the end. Of the two ideas, Lance desperately hoped that Black had exhausted herself fighting off Zarkon's reach for her and teleporting Shiro away.

The only question, then, was where it was that Shiro had been sent.


	2. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of a battle, with Takashi

Takashi stood in the empty cockpit, staring down at the darkened seat, at the bayard still locked into place. Standing in the Black Lion, in Lance's lion, reminded Takashi of everything that he'd lost with this victory. His chest felt too tight, his armor steadily closing in against him.

“Where is he?” He asked the empty space, too fixated on the seat to notice the others coming in behind him. He'd run into the Black Lion first, too concerned about how dead the Black Lion looked, at how Lance was silent on the comms. “Lance? Where is he?”

“Did we— we didn't leave him behind, did we?” Hunk's voice was quiet, grounding Takashi before his emotions could drown him. Takashi reached out, placing a hand on Hunk to further ground himself.

“I–I don't know,” Allura said, shaking her head in disbelief and mild horror. “Everything happened to quickly, I—”

She cut off with a gasp, covering her mouth. Takashi wanted to do the same, wanted to let himself fall apart. He wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to break down and reform.

But he couldn't. Not here, not now.

This wasn't what the team needed.

Takashi took a deep breath, practically gulping it down. “How fast can we wormhole back there?”

“The Castle sustained damage from the battle,” Coran quietly replied. “And all of you have just been through an exhausting fight yourselves. I would suggest that you all rest before–”

“How long?” Pidge asked, short and sharp. Keith shuffled closer to them, wrapping an arm around them and hugging them close.

“The Castle's teludav was pushed hard acting as an interface for the larger teludav,” Coran said, his voice still quiet. “Ten vargas, at least. Not counting the time for us to begin repairs on the Castle.”

“Then let's get to it.” Hunk tried to sound cheerful, but there was too much of an undertone of emotion to miss the unshed tears. On the other side of Hunk, Allura swayed in place, reaching out to use the back of Black's seat for stability. Coran made a distressed noise, gently wrapping his arms around her.

“You need rest, first,” Coran insisted. He looked over the Paladins. “All of you. I will manage the repairs well enough. Slav may be more particular than an Unilu bargaining a swap, but he has quite a remarkable mind. For now, your only mission is to rest.”

Takashi clenched his jaw, painfully repressing a yawn. Coran was right, and he didn't like it. Every moment they didn't go after Lance was a moment where Lance could be discovered by the Galra, or where his suit could get damaged, or–

“Shiro.” Hunk nudged Takashi, brow furrowed in concern. “Come on. Coran's got a point, dude.”

Takashi let out a long sigh, and nodded. “We can't help Lance if we're one step away from falling asleep on our feet. Let's see about getting some sleep.”

Keith and Pidge mumbled their agreement, and everyone's gaze lingered on the dark and empty seat as they left. Takashi's lingered a moment longer on the black bayard, still locked into place, before he left the cockpit.

* * *

He avoided his bedroom like the plague, not yet ready to face the prospect of a night without Lance pressed against his side. When Lance was there, Takashi's ability to sleep went up, Lance's presence soothing and grounding, his warmth and his heartbeat a balm that let Takashi relax and get sleep, real sleep.

The idea of going to bed and Lance not being there to greet him, to hug him close, to joke and flirt with and cuddle up against, left a cold feeling in Takashi. This wasn't a night where he wanted to sleep, wasn't a night where he wanted to be reminded of Lance's absence.

Even worse was their declaration of love for one another, done in the heat of the moment. Takashi had wanted to say it before, with the corrupted wormhole, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead, after, he'd shown his love and adoration in little ways – in holding hands and chaste kisses and lingering touches and the fondest looks that drew upon every bit of Takashi's growing love for Lance. Despite it being a slightly different Lance than Takashi knew, his feelings still held true. The other Lance was just as kind and just as passionate and just as thoughtful and funny and caring as the Lance that Takashi knew. He could only hope that Lance, _his_ Lance, his love, had done more than enough groundwork for the other Lance to find his place in the heart of Takashi's other self.

After seeing the others off to bed, all of them shuffling tiredly into Keith's room, Takashi wandered the Castle. He moved aimlessly, more concerned with avoiding his room than anything else, and stopped when he stepped into the elevator and found himself looking out into the main hangar, looking directly into the dark eyes of the Black Lion.

Takashi felt himself move forward before he made the decision to do so, and stopped in the shadow of Black's head, looking up at her. The Black Lion was huge, larger than Blue and Yellow, and Shiro, even from a distance, felt small. Close up, he felt smaller, felt the awe that the central piece of Voltron, the one that brought the others together, the head of Voltron itself, inspired in others.

“Do you know where he is?” Takashi asked the lion, not sure why he was doing so. “Did you send him away? Did you eject him? Is he— is Lance safe?”

The Black Lion laid there, dark and unmoving. Takashi stared up at her for a moment longer, waiting for a sign or an answer. He turned away when the lion remained silent. Blue crooned in the back of his mind, soft and sad and consoling. Takashi smiled, glancing over at the door to Blue's hangar as he let her feel how grateful he was to have her in all this.

He knew Lance was alive, knew that Lance could survive whatever had happened. He had every faith that they were going to find Lance, just as he had every faith that they were going to defeat Zarkon or that he was going to escape his captivity.

Takashi wandered back into the elevator, surprised to see Coran and Kolivan within.

“Ah!” Coran cried, before squinting at Takashi suspiciously. “You're supposed to be resting, Shiro.”

“I know,” Takashi admitted, sheepishly looking away. He stepped into the elevator, letting the tension bleed away from his shoulders as he waited out the ride up. “I just— it's been a long day. Quintant.”

Coran hummed. “Indeed it has. That doesn't mean you should avoid getting rest while you can.”

“I've been maintaining contact with several of the Blade stationed throughout the Empire,” Kolivan added. “Word of Zarkon's defeat is already spreading. Several systems have entered open rebellion because of what you did. More are seeking to contact Voltron, looking for freedom from the Empire.”

Takashi glanced up in surprise. “Isn't that a good thing?”

“I suppose,” Kolivan admitted. “At first I was unsure about Princess Allura's idea of creating a coalition, but having seen the systems Voltron had freed firsthand, I have reconsidered my stance. Our alliance will remain until the Empire is so dismantled that there is no more need for the Blade of Marmora to exist.”

Takashi nodded, feeling the full weight of the day falling upon his shoulders. Falling back against the wall, he let out a long sigh. “That's... I don't know what to say. I never really... thought about what would happen after we defeated Zarkon. If we would retired from being Voltron or continue to fly across the universe.” Takashi shook his head. “I don't know what to do without Lance here.”

“It will be several pheebs at least before you can consider what a universe that wouldn't need Voltron looks like,” Kolivan replied. “You need not worry about that just yet.”

Coran looked up at Kolivan, before stepping closer to Takashi. “The loss of a leader, even temporarily, is a great change, and the loss of a close friend is even greater. When Zarkon began the war, King Alfor was distraught and felt like he had lost his direction in the universe. Zarkon was his closest friend and his leader, and although King Alfor grieved for the loss of his friend, he still knew that he had a duty.

“When I awoke and learned of Alfor's passing,” Coran continued, his voice growing softer, growing heavier. “When I learned of Altea's destruction, I... well, I felt exactly as you do now. There were a great many Alteans I loved that are no longer here, King Alfor included. It may not be exactly the same with Lance, but I do understand what you're feeling. I had a choice, though. I could let myself fall into grief and lose sight of the future, or I could rally these little humans together into Paladins and provide guidance to the Princess as she requires it.”

“You...” Takashi looked up at Coran, heartbroken. “I'm sorry. I knew Altea was your home too, but it never occurred to me that you lost people too.”

“I'm an older Altean, Shiro,” Coran gently replied with a smile. “I was there to see the universe before Voltron existed. I remember what it was like. Loss has never been new to me. And there was one thing I learned, that I will now tell you.”

“An important lesson?” Takashi asked, chuckling. His vision blurred, and he wiped away the tears before they could fall.

“An important fact,” Coran corrected. He reached up, pulling Takashi into a hug. “Those we have lost will always remain in our hearts and our memories. It would be a great dishonor if they ever learned that we were to stop living because they are no longer here. For their sake, and for their memory, we must live. And living means moving forward.”

Takashi nodded. He let the tears fall, let Coran gently guide him out of the elevator and toward his room. He took one look at the door before pulling out of Coran's grip, moving to knock at Keith's door. After a moment, the door slid open, revealing Pidge in Keith's pajama shirt. On the bed, Hunk was sprawled atop Keith, who was wearing Pidge's green pajama shirt.

“Shiro?” Pidge asked, blinking up at him. With each blink, they grew more and more awake. “What is it?”

The bed shifted, Hunk and Keith squinting at the doorway. Shiro chuckled, wiping his eyes clear. “Hey. Is it alright if I join you guys tonight?”

Keith and Hunk shared a look, then shared that look with Pidge. All three of them shrugged.

“Come on in,” Hunk said, patting the bed. He rolled off of Keith, who groaned and rolled onto Hunk, throwing an arm up and using it to beckon Takashi inside before draping it over Hunk.

“You're on your own for pajamas,” Keith grumbled, already halfway back asleep. “Pidge, get back here. Everything gets all cold without you.”

Takashi opened his mouth to answer before looking down at his armor. He'd been too preoccupied to take it off, to replace it with his pajamas. Shutting his mouth, Takashi looked back up at Pidge, who was full on glaring at him.

“No naked in this bed,” Pidge declared. “Especially no naked _you_. Pajamas or bust.”

“I have pajamas,” Takashi weakly replied, giving Pidge a weary and equally weak smile. “I wear them.”

“You better,” Pidge replied. They jerked their head, and Takashi stepped out of the room, promising to return.

Stepping into his room felt like a level of normalcy that shouldn't exist. Takashi glanced at the bed, still unmade from the night before, and over at the bathroom. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that Lance was there, in the bathroom, busily putting on his face mask.

But Lance wasn't there, wasn't anywhere within the Castle. Either his Lance or the Lance from the other universe.

Takashi changed into his pajamas, carefully avoiding looking at the rumpled black pajamas that lay beside his own; at Lance's clothes sitting perfectly cleaned and folded in the alcove beside the bed, beside his own; at Lance's jacket, still hanging on the wall, waiting for its owner to return.

He was halfway to the door before pausing, turning back toward the bed. On a whim, Takashi grabbed a pillow. Pressing it to his face, Takashi breathed in deep, before pulling away. It smelled like Lance, but not enough.

Grabbing Lance's pajama shirt, he shoved the pillow inside, holding it close and breathing in deep. Nodding to himself, Takashi made his way back into Keith's room, to sleep with the others.

None of them commented on the pillow.

* * *

 The debris field looked awful, a sea of purple amid the black. The ruined skeleton of Zarkon's armor, deep slashes cutting across it from Voltron's sword, floated amid the debris, its chest ripped wide open.

Takashi shivered.

“Open all comms,” he ordered, hoping his voice didn't waver. He had to be strong here. For Lance. For his team. He had to be what they needed. “If he's awake and calling for us, we should hear him.”

“Starting scans now,” Coran called out. A moment later, he bristled. “Quiznack! The debris field's providing too much interference for the scan to pick up anything as small as one of us.”

Takashi nodded, letting himself detatch from the situation. Now wasn't the time to be emotional.

“Okay,” he breathed out. “Keith, can you go out in Red? Run your own scans?”

“I think so,” Keith replied, before nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

“We have Lance's biosignature on record from his time in the cryopods,” Allura said. “The Red Lion's size could allow it to pick up on Lance should the Castle's scanners fail.”

“Then do it,” Takashi said, sounding harsher than he liked. He sighed. “Sorry. This whole thing has me tense.”

“It has us all stressed out, Shiro,” Hunk said from his chair, looking over the scanners Coran was providing. “I think I can adjust the scanners to compensate for the debris field. Just give me a moment.”

Takashi nodded, standing from his chair and moving to stand beside Allura. She glanced at him before nodding.

“I – I learned something in my fight with Haggar,” Allura quietly said, not looking away from the scanners. Outside, Red shot out into the debris field. The comms remained open, and were silent. “It's something I never expected. Something– I don't know how to explain it.”

“Is it something bad?” Takashi asked, glancing at Allura in concern. “Are you okay?”

“I am... reconsidering several facts,” Allura admitted. “I do not know how it could affect us, and I will explain it in full to the others aboard the Castle but...” Allura trailed off, a troubled expression crossing her face. “I need time to understand it myself.”

“Take your time,” Takashi said. “We're all trying to move forward after yesterday. Yester-quintant.”

Takashi shivered, thinking about where Lance could be. He hoped that Lance was somewhere out there in the debris field, hoped that the Black Lion called upon her strange teleporting powers to send Lance away. He hoped anything and everything else had happened but what Takashi feared.

Takashi was still piecing together what little he remembered of his year in Galra captivity, and none of it was good. He didn't want Lance to experience what he had gone through. He didn't want to think about the possibility, however likely, that Lance was currently stuck on Zarkon's command ship.

“I'm not picking up anything,” Keith quietly reported. “And it looks like the Galra pulled Zarkon from his weird Gundam robot. I'm not reading any biosignatures there.”

Takashi bit back a swear.

“Do two more sweeps of the area,” Takashi replied, hoping his voice didn't betray any of his emotions. “If you still don't find anything...”

Takashi trailed off, not wanting to say what they were thinking.

“There are still distress signals coming into the Castle,” Allura finished for him. “We will have to assume that the Galra have Lance until proven otherwise, and he would not want us to abandon our duties to the universe. We will keep searching for Lance, I promise you. If he is out there, then we will fight our way to him. Our Black Paladin _will_ return home to us.”


	3. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins attempt to move forward, with mixed results.

Lance spent the better part of a varga watching Keith fly circles around and through the debris field, listening to Keith's increased desperation as he kept calling out for Shiro. The team sat around the bridge, their mood dropping more and more with each dobosh the comms remained silent of Shiro and the scans didn't pick up his biosignature. Finally, Allura called Keith back in, softly admitting that Shiro wasn't present in the field.

Keith didn't return to the bridge, the weight of Shiro's absence looming heavier on the Castle than before. Lance gripped the arms of his chair until he was white-knuckled, and let out a deep breath.

“So, what now?” he began, hoping to break the tension, “If Shiro isn't here then he's been captured by the Galra.”

“We saved the universe,” Hunk replied, looking from Lance to Allura. “But you said that we're still getting distress calls from a bunch of other planets? Do we save them?”

“Are we going to give up looking for Shiro then?” Pidge asked, frowning at everyone. “Keith won't like that. _I_ don't like that. It feels...”

Pidge trailed off, and Lance winced. If his universe was anything similar to the other one, then...

“We're not giving up the search,” Lance declared, moving to stand closer to Allura. “Like with your family – we know your brother got busted out by those... whoever, and–”

“What?” Pidge blinked. “How do you know that? I didn't show anyone else the video yet!”

“What video?” Hunk asked, looking from Pidge to Lance, baffled. Allura and Coran did the same, just as confused. “Did we get a lead on Pidge's brother?"

“Beta Traz had a breakout a while back,” Lance answered, glancing away from Pidge. “A lot of prisoners got freed, Pidge's brother being one of them. There's a bit of video Pidge has of it, and that's about it. No idea who it was that did the breaking out or where they went afterward.”

“But I'm going to find that out,” Pidge promised, looking determined. “Just like we're going to find Shiro.”

“Exactly!” Lance grinned, glad that that piece of information remained the same between the universes. “Now let's leave this place. That empty armor is giving me the heebie jeebies. Actually this whole place is giving me the heebie jeebies.”

“Of course.” Allura nodded, reaching out to the controls. “I also wanted to reclaim the teludav and return it to Olkarion for safekeeping. I do not believe we will be using it again, and the...” Allura trailed off, frowning. She shook her head. “I will rest easier knowing that it is out of the Empire's possession.”

Lance tilted his head. It seemed like Allura was about to say something else, but decided against it.

“I thought only Alteans could work the wormholer?” Hunk asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Outside the Castle, a wormhole formed, and Lance moved forward, gripping the back of his– of Shiro's seat.

“They can,” Coran replied, looking at Allura curiously. “Teludav technology is entirely unique to Altea. No one else could replicate it. Oh, some could come close, but their methods wouldn't be as efficient or as speedy as a teludav jump.”

The Castle came out into an even bigger debris field, everywhere around them floated the remains of hundreds of fighters and dozens of fleet ships.

“Whoa,” Hunk breathed. “We did this?”

Lance grinned. “Technically, the Black Paladin did most of the work here. I had to do some pretty slick flying to avoid getting hit by an ion cannon a lot of the time.”

“Oh.” Hunk turned to look at Lance in shock. “Oh! Dude! That's right, you got to pilot Black.”

“Yeah?” Lance raised an eyebrow. He looked over at Pidge, confused. Allura gasped before Hunk could continue, drawing their attention over to the massive teludav. The teludav was shattered, the main ring broken into several pieces, and the whole thing was torn apart, ripped into pieces by what had to have been dozens of ion cannon blasts. “Whoa.”

“There's nothing left of it,” Pidge said, staring out at the wreckage in shock. “What now?”

“Now...” Allura looked away, reassured, although of what Lance couldn't tell. “Now we—”

“What did you _do_?!” Keith stormed into the bridge, glaring at all of them – before he focused in on Allura. “You left. You wormholed us out of there.”

“You came back to the Castle,” Allura replied, taken aback at Keith's anger. She straightened up, her own anger settling in as she stared Keith down. “You were thorough in your flight of the field. Neither your scans nor the Castles scans picked up on Shiro's location. He wasn't there.”

“He is!” Keith insisted, his voice guttural and shaky with emotion. “He's there! He has to be! I came back to, to– I know how to find him, and you just– you left! You– I can't– we can't just leave him there. We _can't_.”

“Whoa, hey, Keith, maybe calm down a little?” Hunk reasoned, but Keith ignored him, moving closer to Lance and Allura.

“Did you fly through as much of the field as possible?” Lance asked, feeling a pit start to form in his stomach.

“Yes.”

“Did you have your comms open?”

“Yes.”

“The bioscanner was on and looking for him?”

“Yes!”

“Then if you still didn't find anything, then he wasn't there,” Lance concluded, wishing he didn't have to be so blunt about it. He wanted to be back in the other universe, where everything wasn't half as bad as things were in this one. “Which means he's either been teleported away someplace else or—”

“Don't you dare say it,” Keith warned, pinning his glare on Lance. He came to a stop across from Allura.

“It's the only other option, Keith,” Lance quietly said. “I don't like the idea any more than you do but we have to consider it.”

“We only have to wormhole back there,” Keith growled. “Then I can go back down to the hangars and–”

“And what, Keith?” Pidge asked, annoyed. “We all know how much Shiro means to you.”

“Yeah, man,” Hunk added, looking uncomfortable to be getting in the middle of the argument. “I kind of guessed that you would be flying out there until you were sure Shiro wasn't there.”

“I was switching to a tactic I know works,” Keith argued. “I've been in this kind of situation before, I know how to find Shiro!”

Lance blinked, eyebrows raising. “You... Keith, when was this?”

“Two weeks ago,” Keith replied, barely sparing Lance a glance.

Thinking back, Lance's face fell as he recalled what Keith had to be talking about. Two weeks ago would have been the wormhole, and that planet, and... “It wouldn't work.”

“You don't know that,” Keith growled. “You weren't even there! You haven't _been_ here since we first went after Zarkon!”

“Let me guess,” Lance began, looking at Keith. “You were going to try and wake Black up and pilot her to where Shiro is?”

Keith froze, eyes widening in shock. Everyone looked from Lance to Keith in surprise.

“What?” Hunk said, gaze bouncing between Lance and Keith. “Keith flew the Black Lion? But– but I called the head! I very clearly remember calling the head.”

“Can he even do that?” Pidge asked, squinting at Keith suspiciously. “Whatever happened to mystical lion bonding?”

“It's an emergency feature,” Lance explained before Allura had the chance. He glanced at Allura. “How did that go again? In the event of an emergency, any other Paladin can pilot the Black Lion?”

“I– yes.” Allura looked back at Coran, who gave her a slight nod, encouraging. “That is true.”

Lance nodded, satisfied, and turned back to see Keith staring at him inquisitively. “What?”

“How did you know that?” Keith asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Universe swap,” Lance replied. It felt almost strange, having a civil conversation with Keith from his universe, but... he'd extended the same courtesy to the other Keith, and the other Lance had told him about fixing things here in Lance's universe. “I was in Shiro's place and he was in mine. Which, let me tell you, having that magic injury really hurt and fighting the lizard-wolf-dinosaur things? That was awful. But,” Lance shrugged, “you did manage to pilot Black and save me over there, so I figured you did the same over here, but with Shiro.”

“So you know it works.” Keith tilted his head, staring at Lance, wanting him to argue. “Then let's go.”

“The comms were open, Keith,” Pidge began, hesitant. “It's been a day. Shiro... he's tough. We _know_ he's tough. Do you really think, if he'd been back there, he wouldn't have done something to get our attention?”

Keith's anger deflated, before he scoffed and turned away.

“I'm going to train.”

Lance wanted to say something, wanted to reassure Keith that they weren't giving up on Shiro, but... Keith already knew that. That wasn't what Keith needed. That wasn't what _anyone_ needed.

Keith left the bridge, the others watching him leave.

“As I said, we're going to keep looking for Shiro,” Allura repeated, breaking the silence. “But we cannot ignore the distress signals the Castle is picking up. Our best hope for finding him is to keep fighting the empire. As Slav would say, there is no possible reality where the empire would not proclaim having taken a Paladin of Voltron prisoner.”

“Especially after Voltron took down their immortal emperor,” Hunk added, nodding along like it made sense. “Which, we did do that right? Zarkon won't be coming back?”

Hunk looked at Lance for confirmation, and Lance offered a weak smile and a shrug in return.

“If he does, we'll just beat him back down again,” Lance replied. “For good this time. No holding back just because one of us is swapped into another universe.”

“Speaking of universe swapping, what was that like?” Pidge inquired, looking at Lance curiously. “How did you even manage to pilot the Black Lion?”

“Just fine,” Lance replied, before wincing. “Although the first couple times we formed Voltron was exhausting. I'm kind of surprised I managed as well as I did back then too.” Lance grinned. “Bonding with Black was a real experience too. She's all wind and birds and the sky compared to how Blue's dolphins and whales and water.” He paused. “And punching Zarkon in the face was pretty cool too.”

“You what?” Hunk shrieked, hopping to his feet. “Dude, did you seriously do that?”

Lance gave everyone a canary-eating grin. “I socked him right in the jaw. I mean, I had help from Black, but the punching part was all me.” He shrugged, acting like it was nothing. “He did break my arm and give me bruised ribs, so I had to do something in return.”

“What?” Hunk grabbed Lance, looking him over and gingerly poking at Lance's arms and chest. “Are you okay? How did that happen?”

“Where was this fight?” Allura asked. “The astral plane?”

Lance blinked, surprised. “Actually, yeah. It's where Black took me – and, I guess, Shiro on this side – to get the cliffnotes version of Voltron's origin.” Lance shuddered. “That asteroid still gives me the creeps. I swear it was looking right at me.”

“What did it feel like piloting Black?” Pidge asked. “And what about forming Voltron? Lance, gimme details. I need to know. For science.”

Coran's console chirped, and he glanced at it in surprise. “Science can wait, I'm afraid. It appears Antok and Thace are ready to leave the cryo-replenishers.”

“Science never waits,” Pidge ominously stated. Lance grinned, ducking under Hunk's prodding grip to pull them into a one-armed hug.

“Come on, Pidge,” Lance said, slinging an arm around Hunk and pulling him close. “Let's go give Thace a real Voltron welcome.”

“Later,” Pidge insisted. “Science first.”

“I'd like to meet this Thace as well,” Allura said, stepping away from the controls. “I'm afraid we didn't have the chance to meet before he had to go into the cryopod.”

“Then it's settled,” Lance concluded. “We're doing a meet and greet with Thace, and then you can science all you like.”

“I will science all I like now,” Pidge growled, pulling out their phone. “Speak clearly into the mic and tell me _exactly_ what it felt like being in the other universe. Especially that part about sucker punching Zarkon in the face.”

Lance laughed, glad that, even after everything, they could still be friends.

* * *

Thace was smaller than Lance expected, only tall by human standards. Compared to Antok's massive frame, every Galra was smaller, but compared to an ordinary Galra like Kolivan, whom Thace was currently leaning against as he regained his footing, Thace was only a little taller than Shiro's height.

Allura had sent a message over the intercom for everyone to meet in the med bay, and Lance was almost happy to see Keith skulking in the far corner, near the door. Keith still looked angry, but when he met Lance's gaze, he looked away, more interested in Antok and Thace than in anyone else in the room.

“I admit, being alive right now was not how I planned this,” Thace said, looking over the room warily. “I was prepared to die to ensure the plan succeeded.”

“And yet, here you are, alive,” Antok dryly replied, leaning against the wall of his cryopod for support. “And the plan succeeded nonetheless.”

“Old friend!” Slav cried, barreling into the med bay. He paused once he reached Antok, looking up at the Blade, speculative. “I am glad you are alive. And Thace too! In over ninety-seven percent of all possible outcomes, you both did not survive. But this reality is not one of those, I am very pleased to announce!”

“Maybe give him some room to put his clothes on,” Lance offered, suppressing a grin. “Although I'm surprised we managed to find a med suit that fit you, tail and all.”

“That's our guarantee, Lance,” Coran said, looking over the records. “All the clothes in the Castle are made to fit any species we come across, no matter their size or limbs or even the length of their tails!”

Allura stepped forward, “I am—”

“Princess Allura,” Thace finished, stepping away from Kolivan to fall to one knee in a deep bow. “It is an honor to meet you.” Thace looked up, grimacing as he got back to his feet. “And these must be the Paladins.”

“Hi,” Hunk waved, while Pidge walked up to Thace and looked him directly in the eye.

“What do you know about coding Galra software?” Pidge asked, staring intensely up at Thace. He looked around the room, baffled, before sighing.

“I am proficient enough,” he admitted. Pidge nodded, satisfied, and stepped back.

“Sorry about that,” Lance said, placing a hand on the retreating Pidge's shoulder and nudging them over to where Keith still skulked. “They're Pidge, Green Paladin. The big guy is Hunk, he's our Yellow Paladin. The angry one in the corner is Keith, the Red Paladin. I'm Lance, the Bl– the Blue Paladin.”

“Keith is of Galran descent,” Kolivan added. “He inherited the blade from his mother, and took the trials. He is a fellow Blade.”

Thace nodded, zeroing in on Keith, who was grumpily enduring Pidge's prodding. “And was the plan successful?”

“With several unexpected turns, it was a success,” Kolivan replied.

“Zarkon is now Zar- _gone_!” Lance declared with a grin. At once, Allura and Kolivan shared a long-suffering look. Lance's grin faded. “What, did the other me use that one already?”

“Another time,” Allura replied diplomatically. “For now, we should all ready ourselves. In one varga, I will perform a teludav jump into the Mallix system. The Castle has picked up a recent distress signal from the Mallixum, and we must be ready to aid them.”

“Aid them?” Hunk asked, halfway to joining Pidge in looking Keith over. “Are they fighting the Galra?”

“Several systems have heard of Voltron's attack on Zarkon by now,” Kolivan answered. Beside him, Coran gestured toward a corner of the room where an opaque partition appeared, blocking everyone's view of Antok and Thace as they changed. Lance gaped, feeling unduly offended that Takashi hadn't known about that, before feeling a stab of guilt. “Even if they have not heard of our victory, the fact that the empire is currently in turmoil has spread far quicker than the commanding forces would prefer. I have heard from several of our agents across the universe that Voltron has inspired systems into open rebellion.”

“And Voltron will provide aid to each of these systems,” Allura calmly said. “The more planets we free from the empire's control, the quicker we can dissolve the empire into a coalition as my father intended.” She glanced over at Keith, who was batting Hunk and Pidge aside, and frowned at her. “And the quicker we can find our missing friend.”

“Each planet freed from the empire's control boosts our chances of success exponentially,” Slav helpfully added, carrying piles of clothing around the privacy wall.

“You mentioned four Paladins,” Thace said, peering around the privacy wall to look at Hunk and Pidge, who were now engaging in a slap fight after Keith dodged Hunk's poking. “Is the Black Paladin busy?”

“He's missing,” Keith tersely replied, stepping around Hunk and Pidge. He gave Lance and Allura brief glares before looking away.

“We don't know where he is _exactly_ , but we're going to find him,” Lance replied before Keith could resume the argument from the bridge. He shot Keith a sharp look before turning his full attention on Thace and Antok. “Now, let's get some food goo in you guys. I've been in the cryopods at least half a dozen times by now, I know you're both starving. Especially you, Antok. You're really big.”

“Yes yes,” Slav agreed. “You need food!”

“Very well, old friend,” Antok chuckled, allowing himself to be led out of the room. Thace followed a step behind him, wearing the Blade's uniform, the hood pooling at his shoulders.

“I hope this food goo is any better than the nourishment found in central command,” Thace dryly muttered. Hunk gasped, affronted.

“Okay, that's it. I'm taking control of the kitchen and we're cooking these guys a real meal.” Hunk rushed out of the room, nodding to himself. Pidge and Coran followed along at a near jog, shouting about how Thace hadn't been given the tour and that they didn't know how to operate the food goo dispenser.

Lance looked around the room, at Kolivan, Allura, and Keith.

“Keith, I–” Lance began, but Keith was already out the door before Lance could really start. He sighed, glancing at Allura. She had a pinched look on her face, annoyed at how Keith acted. Lance winced, stepping between her and the door. “He's trying, Allura. We're all trying here. It's not easy to move forward after what happened.”

Allura looked at Lance curiously, before nodding. “Perhaps. But we cannot put aside the need for Voltron and focus all our efforts on locating Shiro. I wish it were different, but the universe must come first.”

“I will inform my fellow Blades still operating within the empire to monitor for any sign of the Black Paladin,” Kolivan offered. “I doubt we will see results immediately.”

“Especially with how the empire appears to be fracturing,” Allura added. Lance watched their interaction with mild curiosity, wondering what had happened when he was in the other universe that had Allura be so friendly. “Voltron cannot endure the same. We must be a united force.”

He thought about Keith, and how much the other Keith had trusted Lance. He thought about what the other Lance would do, thought about what he should do.

“We'll go on this mission, and one of us should talk with him after it.” Lance frowned. After freeing Mallix, the Mallixum would want to talk with Allura, and Kolivan still had the Blade of Marmora to lead, so it would fall to Lance to have to explain that they wouldn't find Shiro immediately. And he doubted that, out of all the people that could talk to Keith, he was the one that Keith wanted to talk to.

If things went well, maybe Lance could rope Pidge or Hunk into it too. Pidge apparently had the Star Wars movies on hand, and Hunk could hug Keith until he was better. Pausing, Lance smiled, the beginnings of a plan coming together.

“Actually, I think I have an idea for what we could do,” Lance began. “Neither of you have seen Star Wars yet, have you?”

“Seen what?” Kolivan asked, looking to Allura for explanation. Allura didn't answer, brow furrowed in thought.

“It's a movie,” Lance explained. “Technically a series of movies, but it's about this group of kids...”

* * *

Mallix turned out to be half a planet, crescent shaped and so densely covered in cities and technology that it might as well have been built that way instead of naturally formed. Five Galra fleet warships hovered at the edge of the crescent, fighters buzzing around and the skies above the planet alight with blaster fire.

“Whoa,” Hunk breathed.

“Paladins, to your lions,” Allura commanded.

Lance looked down at the blue armor, a soft smile curling at the edge of his lips at the familiarity. He moved forward, two weeks of instinct drawing him toward the black chair in front of Allura before realizing his mistake. Moving away toward the blue pillar, Lance opened up his comms.

“So what are we heading into?” he asked, riding the zipline down. Everything was tinted a familiar blue, and Lance couldn't help letting the tension fade away as he hopped down onto the blue speeder.

“Yeah man, it looked like someone was already fighting the Galra,” Hunk added.

“The Mallixum are fighting back against an increased invasion force,” Allura replied.

“Mallix is one of many planets that specializes is constructing ships for interstellar travel,” Kolivan continued. “They do not manufacture warships, instead they build trading and cargo vessels.”

“Currently, Coran is attempting to open contact with the Mallixum on the planet, in the hopes that we might understand the situation there. For now, though, focus your efforts on stopping those fleet warships. They're the primary source attacking the planet.” Allura came through calm but determined.

“Do they have prisoners?” Keith asked, sounding almost hopeful.

“Our scans are not picking up any life forms aboard beyond the Galra,” Allura answered.

“Attacking ships generally don't collect prisoners,” Thace added, sounding almost bored. “It's only the warships stationed in the most quiet sectors that act as prisoner transports. Commander Prorok firmly enforced limiting the number of warships hosting prisoners because he believed that they could escape in battle and become an internal issue.” Thace paused. “He was insufferably pragmatic, though, and deeply enjoyed including himself in everything. I'm rather glad I pinned the solar barrier's downfall on him.”

Lance listened with half an ear as he entered Blue's hangar. She thrummed in the back of his mind, the ebb and flow of the tide, the crashing of waves, the joyous babbling brook. She was familiar, filling in a piece of Lance that he'd felt aching since first waking up in the other universe.

Stepping into Blue's cockpit felt like coming home. Blue keened in his mind, the call of whales and the shrieks of seagulls as her presence washed over him, pulling Lance into her depths. He'd dearly missed this, and took a deep, shuddering breath as he opened his eyes again. Lance grinned, wiping away the tears threatening to blur his vision, and grinned viciously as he gripped Blue's controls. “Let's go.”

The Blue Paladin flew into battle cheerfully, letting out a whoop as he charged into the fray. Blue roared in time with Lance, the thunderous roar of a waterfall echoing in the back of his mind as Blue roared into battle. Together, they dived into a group of attacking fighters.

Lance blasted at the fighters all over, using Blue's jaws to grab onto several fighters and use them as makeshift jawblades, smashing several more fighter drones before they broke apart. Hunk, Pidge, and Keith all flew up beside Lance, and he couldn't keep the smile off his face as he opened up the comms.

“Dude! Where did you learn to fly like that?” Hunk asked. “That was really—whoa—that was kind of scary! But cool!”

“What's our plan here?” Pidge asked. “Do we take down the fighters or the warships first?”

“I vote fighters. Those warships are big and I prefer going after the smaller ones firing at us,” Hunk said.

“The warships,” Keith tersely replied, flying forward. “Let's get this over with.”

“Keith wait!” Lance called out. “Pidge, Hunk, you two are on the fighters. Keep them from getting close to the planet. The people on the ground have enough to deal with.”

“Got it!” Hunk said, and Yellow dived off, Pidge following along after a moment, leaving Lance and Keith to take down the fleet ships.

Lance pulled on Blue's power, feeling the burst and crackle of cold that came with Blue's ice ray, and watched grimly as he froze one of the ion cannons before it could fire. The ion cannon lit up, exploding and taking half the fleet ship with it. Moving on to the next fleet ship, Lance grunted when Red slammed into him.

“What are you doing?” Keith screamed, and Lance grunted, dodging a blast from an ion cannon.

“I'm attacking the fleet ships,” Lance replied, diving in close on another of the ships.

“But what about—” Keith growled in frustration, firing off Red's magma beam at the furthest of the fleet ships. “They could have Shiro in them!”

“You heard Allura, Keith,” Lance grunted, firing at the next fleet ship, freezing half of it solid before blasting it to bits with Blue's laser. “And Thace. They both said that there's nobody to save on these ships.”

“But–” Keith groaned. “Fine.”

Red's cannon materialized, and with a single blast it tore the remaining two fleet ships in half. Lance watched the ships explode and break apart, understanding why Keith wanted to hold off on destroying them.

“He's not here,” Lance replied, quiet. “We can't put him above saving the universe, Keith.”

“I _know_ that,” Keith growled, and his comms shut off, leaving Lance to pull into a dive to trail after him. They joined with Pidge and Hunk to take down the remaining fighter drones, Lance still feeling the absence of Keith on the comms, even as Blue rumbled in reassurance and comfort in the back of his mind.

The battle ended shortly after, with Allura saying that they didn't need to land, the Mallixum more than grateful that Voltron was there to help drive the Galra from their system. Lance tried to find Keith in the hangars, but he was already gone, leaving him having to seek out the others.

“Hunk! Pidge! My two favorite geniuses!” Lance called out, running toward them. Pidge yelped, nearly climbing atop Hunk as Lance came in and pulled the two into a hug. “Come on, we've got some cheering up to do!”

“Do it yourself,” Pidge grumbled, clinging to Hunk's back. “Hunk, move.”

“I have an idea,” Lance proclaimed. “Something that's long overdue. Something that we all need. Even Keith.”

“And what's that?” Pidge dryly asked, while Hunk sighed and resigned himself to having Pidge as a human backpack.

“Yeah, I don't think Keith's going to want to be all buddy buddy with us anytime soon,” Hunk nervously added, moving toward the elevator. “And Pidge, you better rethink this plan. I'm getting out of this armor, and I need to change into my clothes. Think really hard about what you're doing, because I won't stop if you stay on my back. I am a man on a mission.”

Pidge looked away from Lance, staring at Hunk in mild horror before hopping off his back.

“You play dirty,” Pidge stated.

“Guys, focus!” Lance cried, drawing on every bit of focus and patience he had. “I want to do a movie night. Star Wars.”

Pidge and Hunk stopped, looking back at Lance in surprise.

“Movie night?” Hunk squeaked, while Pidge stiffened.

“Yeah, I was thinking, since Pidge has Star Wars on their laptop–” Lance began, only to have Pidge leap up, shoving Lance to the floor of the elevator with their bayard inches from his face.

“You will say nothing about movie night to anyone else, I'm not sacrificing my laptop to project Star Wars onto the main screen of the bridge,” Pidge growled. Lance blinked.

“I was going to have you screen it in the lounge,” Lance replied. “But if you want to try for the bridge I'm game.”

“Pidge.” Hunk sighed, wrapping his arms around Pidge and picking them up and off of Lance. “Come on. Let's calm down a bit, and maybe talk with Coran, because that sounds like something interesting. I know you can connect and look at stuff from the bridge on your laptop, but I bet we can get the reverse up and running in maybe half an hour.”

Pidge went limp in Hunk's grip, their bayard deactivating and vanishing. They looked up at Hunk. “You really think we can do it?”

“It'd go a long way in figuring out how the Castle works,” Hunk pointed out. “Plus, I've been wanting to figure out how to code Doom into the Castle since, like, day one. It's the dream, Pidge. Running Doom on alien software. Don't let the dream be a dream.”

Lance snorted. “Crow, can you imagine Coran or Allura playing Doom? They'd probably be either scary good or be too busy laughing to do anything.”

“Okay, I'm in,” Pidge said. “Let's do this. Movie night. And then Doom.”

* * *

Lance wandered the halls, looking for the others. If they were going to do a movie night, then they were going to do it _right_. Pidge and Hunk were up on the bridge with Coran and Allura, well on the way to projecting the movie. All they needed was Kolivan, Thace, Antok, Slav, and Keith.

Thankfully, Lance had the presence of mind to ask Coran to locate them with the security cameras. He really should have known that Keith would find them all and round them up to help him learn how to unlock his blade at will.

The training room was full of sound, ranging from Slav's anxious commentary to Thace's idle chatter, but mostly from Keith's loud grunting as he fought against Kolivan.

“You need to be at peace with who you are,” Kolivan said, effortlessly blocking and parrying each of Keith's strikes. He caught Keith's attempted kick, and used it to fling Keith to the ground. “You are thinking too much. Feel it. The blade is an extension of yourself, a manifestation of your will.”

Lance paused in the doorway, sidling over to where Antok and Thace stood. Slav was wrapped around Antok's shoulders, watching the exchange with wide, attentive eyes.

“You know, Kolivan is a better person to explain this whole blade thing than you were, Antok,” Lance remarked, leaning back against the wall. Antok canted his head, curious, while Thace peered around him to squint at Lance.

“You... I was not aware you were present when Keith unlocked his blade.”

Lance shrugged. “Technically I was? It was a different universe, though. I was the Black Paladin there, so I had him come with me to your base.”

“A different universe,” Thace flatly echoed. “Is this another one of those things that I should be aware of?”

“Maybe?” Lance rolled his eyes. “Whatever Haggar did to the wormhole after you helped us escape had me swap universes with a different me. I swapped back permanently when the Komar hit, though, so it's not something we should worry about.”

“It's true,” Slav added. “He was in the body of a Lance from a different reality.”

Thace looked from Lance to Slav, then at Antok, who shrugged indifferently. He had a deadpan look on his face as he turned his attention back to the match. Lance covered his snigger, stopping when he saw Keith's blade go flying. Keith let out a cry of frustration, falling to the floor.

“Why can't I just get this?!” Keith cried, burying his face in his hands. Lance winced, and leaned closer to Antok.

“Hey, so we're planning a big bonding thing up on the bridge, you guys can head up. I'll... see how Keith is handling himself.”

“I would guess that he is not well,” Antok replied, looking over at where Keith was still on the floor, hands over his face. Kolivan picked up Keith's blade, sliding it into his belt beside his own as he approached the group.

“I can see that,” Lance flatly said. To Kolivan he continued, “Big team bonding thing up on the bridge. You're all included.”

Kolivan nodded once, short and sharp. “Antok, Thace, Slav. Go up. I will join you shortly. The cub is still emotional.”

Lance glanced up at Kolivan in surprise, before nodding. “Guess it's the both of us.”

“He is young,” Kolivan replied, not looking at Lance. Antok and Thace left the room, Slav adjusting his place on Antok's shoulders. “You are all young. Loss is something of a new experience for you.”

“You can say that again,” Lance muttered. Louder he said, “Keith?”

“Go away, Lance,” Keith grumbled through his hands. Lance looked over at Kolivan, who moved closer to Keith, his long strides outpacing Lance's.

“I have had to deal with the loss of my own leader, before,” Kolivan shortly said, crouching down beside Keith. “It is an ache that can and will ease with time. It does no good to dwell on it.”

“Shiro isn't dead,” Keith growled, glaring at Kolivan before settling on Lance. The raw emotion in his voice cut at Lance, making him falter.

“We're not saying he's dead, Keith,” Lance softly replied. “He's just missing.”

“That's what the Garrison said at first,” Keith murmured, pushing onto his feet. He glared at Lance and Kolivan with red-rimmed eyes. “And then they said he was dead without any proof it happened. This is just like back then. You're giving up, and I'm the only one here who _cares_.”

“Redirecting our focus is not giving up,” Kolivan said, voice surprisingly soft. “The manner of his disappearance suggests that he is elsewhere. Were we in a different position, then we could devote all of our resources into finding the missing Black Paladin. But the universe is in danger, and we cannot devote all of our time and resources to finding him.”

“He's out there,” Keith insisted. “He's alive. I know it.”

“We agree,” Lance spoke up. “And you know Shiro. Do you think he's not trying his best to get back to us?”

“I—” Keith looked away, crossing his arms. “Yeah. He would. He is.”

“Then the best thing we can do is to increase the chances of Shiro being able to find and contact the Castle of Lions or one of Voltron's allies,” Kolivan reasoned.

“The smaller the empire gets, the less area we have to search,” Lance continued. “Come on, Keith. You have to—”

“I don't have to do anything,” Keith growled, repeating his words from earlier. He grabbed his blade from Kolivan's belt, sliding it into its sheath on his belt. “I'll be on the bridge for this team bonding thing.”

Lance watched Keith leave, then looked up at Kolivan, who was watching him curiously.

“I should think,” Kolivan began, “that you will make a decent ally. Perhaps even a fine leader, given several pheebs of experience.”

Lance stared in confusion as Kolivan left, and mulled over his words. He still felt like he wasn't finished with Keith, that there was still something else lurking there, something Lance wasn't seeing.

Sighing, Lance left the training room. Whatever the problem was, it could be dealt with another day.


	4. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takashi and the team begin to move forward, and comfort one another.

They remained in the debris field for almost two vargas, Keith continuing to fly around the area. Each tick—each _second_ —that the comms remained silent except for Allura repeating the same phrase every couple of doboshes sank Takashi's heart further and further.

“Lance, if you are out there, if you can hear this, please respond,” Allura began again. She sounded weary, and closed her eyes as she stepped away from her dais. “Has there been any luck in our scans? Perhaps he's still unconscious after the battle.”

Coran shook his head. “We've had no such luck, I'm afraid.”

“Yeah, Pidge and I have been over here coding the scanner to filter out all the metal debris and stuff,” Hunk added, leaning over Pidge's console. Both of them looked dejected. “We've crossed it with the bioscanner to look for any sign of Lance.”

“It's a great big ball of nothing,” Pidge bitterly finished, leaning back and crossing their arms. “We're not picking up anything. The improved scanner works, it's just not picking up Lance.”

“Could we try flying in Black?” Keith offered over the comms. “Wouldn't Black be able to find Lance?”

“The Black Lion is still unresponsive,” Allura replied. She looked over at Takashi. “But having a Paladin— _any_ Paladin—could activate the Black Lion.”

“Would that work?” Hunk asked. “Because if it's for finding Lance, then I'm all for flying Black. Even if Black is bigger than Yellow, and probably faster...”

“I...” Takashi thought about sitting in Black's cockpit, sitting where Lance should be. He recalled all those times Lance (the other Lance, the one who reaffirmed the feelings building in Takashi, the one who also wasn't here anymore) spoke about how good of a leader the other Takashi – the other Shiro was. The idea of anyone other than Lance piloting Black, leading Voltron, didn't sit right within Takashi. Lance was undeniably Voltron's Black Paladin, and Takashi...

He couldn't bring himself to want to step into Black.

Takashi glanced over at the skeletal remains of Zarkon's armor, ripped open. If Lance was in danger, if he was in the hands of the Galra, then Black should already have woken and flown off after him, no matter the distance.

Takashi looked at Hunk. “I don't want to feel like I'm replacing him.”

Hunk's face fell. “Dude. You won't. This is just like when Keith flew Black to save Lance!”

“Yeah, but that time he knew exactly where Lance was,” Pidge added, sounding tired. “We've run every possible scan on Yggis for Lance. He's not in this galaxy.”

“Keith, return to the Castle.” Allura's voice cut through them, drawing their attention. Her shoulders were taut, and she looked over at them sadly.

“Are you sure?” Keith asked, voice strained. “Do you want me to fly Black?”

“I'm sorry,” Allura said. “We've looked here all we could. It's clear that Lance isn't present in this galaxy.”

“Black could still find him!” Keith pointed out, even as Red turned toward the Castle. “Their connection is stronger than Zarkon's was.”

“Zarkon's bond with the Black Lion was strengthened and corrupted by the– the witch Haggar,” Allura quietly replied, looking away. “The Komar was her doing. As I said, it was her that was behind the switch between Lances, however unintentional. Lance's meeting with Zarkon in the astral plane triggered another switch, however brief, and...”

“It means Zarkon was pulling a cheat code to raise his level higher than it should be,” Pidge concluded. “So we don't actually know the full distance that a Lion can reach her Paladin.”

“And we've already figured that Lance isn't here,” Hunk added, fingers twitching to do something—probably bake something, Takashi concluded. “Then where is he?”

“We've got two options,” Takashi said. “I don't like the first option, but it has to be said.”

“The Galra have him,” Keith realized, stepping onto the bridge.

“Or the Black Lion teleported him away,” Allura countered. “Much is not known about the astral plane, but what is known—what I believed was a legend—is that the Black Lion is closely connected to it.”

“What _is_ the astral plane, anyway?” Pidge asked, leaning forward and pulling up their console, fingers at the ready to jot down whatever they learned.

“And why would Black teleport Lance _away_ from here?” Hunk added, frowning.

“Black probably thought Lance was in danger or something,” Takashi mused. “We won't know for sure until we find him.”

“And finding him is our new mission,” Keith said, looking from Allura to Takashi. “We defeated Zarkon, so now we can focus on finding our missing family?”

Takashi wanted to say yes. He wanted to agree with Keith, wanted to expend every effort into finding Lance, into finding Commander Holt and Matt and finally locating Keith's missing mom. Their family was missing, and he wanted nothing more than to find them.

“The empire is still out there,” Takashi replied, looking each of them over. Without Lance there, someone had to step up and bring everything into focus. And he knew that he had to be the person that they needed, the driving focus that Voltron needed, until they found Lance or Lance found them. “Wherever Lance is, we _know_ he won't sit still until he finds us, or someone he knows can contact us. Our chances of finding Lance – of finding any of our missing family – it has to go up if Voltron keeps fighting and freeing planets.”

“It does!” Slav piped up, wandering into the room alongside Kolivan. “The location of missing team members goes up exponentially as the search area gets smaller. This is factual in all possible realities.”

“Thank you, Slav,” Allura replied, her eyebrow twitching.

“You haven't found Lance yet?” Kolivan asked, tilting his head. He moved to stand beside Keith, and Takashi's mouth twitched in the ghost of a smile at how tiny Keith was compared to Kolivan.

“He's not here,” Takashi sighed. “We were just discussing about moving forward.”

“Firstly, we need to see what can be recovered of the teludav,” Allura continued, turning back to the dais. After a moment, a wormhole appeared, Allura looking to Coran to guide the Castle through.

“My... condolences, I suppose,” Kolivan said, looking almost like he belonged among them. Takashi supposed he would; they were all bonded in their own way, allies against the empire. It still felt strange to him, seeing Galra that he could trust to have his back, that he might call friend and ally. “Although perhaps that is too soon to say.”

“He's missing,” Pidge said acerbically, squinting at Kolivan. “Probably holed up in a Galra prison somewhere.”

“He's not dead,” Keith added, looking from Pidge to Kolivan. “We're going to find him. There's no Voltron without Lance.”

“Captured?” Kolivan asked mildly. “I understood he was missing, but captured...” Kolivan tilted his head, a sideways shake as if to clear his head. “There are agents of the Blade still within the empire that I rely upon and trust for information. I will send word for them to listen for word of the Black Paladin. If they hear anything about him, you will hear from me.”

Takashi opened his mouth, ready to thank Kolivan, but the words died in his throat as the Castle exited the wormhole, revealing an even larger field of debris floating, the teludav from Olkarion little more than shattered and broken pieces. He glanced at Allura, and her shoulders sagged in relief.

“It is... good to know, that the teludav will not fall into the hands of the empire,” Allura said, sounding just as relieved. “This technology is sacred and unique to Altea. I hate to think of what the empire could do with access to it.”

“You think they destroyed it because it's the thing that we used to take Zarkon's ship?” Hunk asked, looking at Keith, who shrugged.

“In 99.898 percent of all possible realities, the teludav was doomed to be destroyed,” Slav lamented. He sighed. “It was beautiful while it existed.”

Takashi started as something on Coran's console beeped. “Ah! It seems the warning I'd set up for the cryopods just went off. Antok and Thace are set to come out in less than five doboshes.”

Kolivan nodded. “Excellent. Now would be a good time to apprise them of the situation.”

“I shall go with you,” Allura began, stepping away from the dais.

“We're all going with you,” Pidge said. “I want to meet this Thace guy. He worked in Zarkon's ship, he has to know a lot of stuff we don't.”

Takashi nodded his agreement. If nothing else, Thace could provide enough information on where they could find Commander Holt, and where to look if the Galra really had Lance.

* * *

With everyone in the med bay, it almost felt crowded as Thace and Antok stumbled out of the pods. Hunk yelped when Antok nearly fell on him, and his knees nearly gave way after Antok clapped a hand on his shoulder to steady himself. Takashi allowed himself a moment to smile at the action before moving alongside Keith to help get Antok back on his feet.

“I can't believe I'm alive,” Thace said, leaning against Kolivan. Takashi wondered if Thace was smaller than Kolivan because they were from different regions, or if it was because Thace was that much younger than Kolivan.

“You're welcome for that,” Antok replied. “It must feel better than being exploded by an overheated central hub.” He groaned. “Were we at least successful?”

“Zarkon has been defeated,” Allura answered. “I didn't get the chance to thank you for your aid earlier.”

“I never thought I'd see the quintant of a universe without Zarkon leading it.” Thace shook his head.

“And now you're alive to see it,” Antok dryly replied.

“Steady there,” Takashi said. Beside his head, Antok's stomach rumbled. “Hungry?”

“Don't worry,” Coran said. “The cryopods have a habit of leaving one wobbly in the knees for a dobosh or two after warming you.”

“And the hunger?” Antok dryly asked. “Is that part of it too?”

“Generally, yeah,” Takashi answered. “I've seen Lance in one of these more than enough times to know that one.”

Takashi mulled over that thought, that Lance had been in a cryopod on three separate occasions. It didn't feel right that, out of the entire team, Lance kept getting injured.

“We _know_ ,” Keith replied with a roll of the eyes, leading the charge to the kitchen several minutes later. “You get all clingy every time it happens.”

“Ignore Keith,” Takashi told Thace. “He's allergic to romance.”

“You two are like my parents,” Keith said, curling his nose in mild disgust. “It's _weird_ when you do sappy couple things.”

Pidge snorted, shrieking as Hunk picked them up and set them atop his shoulder.

“Come on, guys, let's get some food.” Hunk grinned. “I can make those burger things again.”

“Yes!” Keith smiled, fist bumping Hunk. “Those burger things are great.”

“Right?” Hunk cheered. Thace watched their interactions with mild horror.

“Younglings,” he breathed in horrified awe. Beside him, Kolivan sagely nodded.

“But they're learning,” Kolivan said. “These younglings are skilled. Especially the cub.”

Thace perked up. “The cub?”

“Keith,” Takashi supplied, deftly avoiding Slav as he slid along and pressed up against Antok's side. “I'm guessing you're talking about Keith.”

“I heard my name,” Keith spoke up, turning his attention over to Takashi. He narrowed his eyes. “Whatever you're telling them, it's not true.”

“So you _aren't_ part Galra?” Takashi innocently asked, batting his eyes.

Keith groaned in frustration. “Okay, that part's true. My mom is Galra. But everything else isn't!”

“Part Galra?” Thace looked Keith over. He hummed dispassionately. “You must take strongly after your father.”

“He's taken and passed the trials,” Kolivan said. “Although he's yet to activate his blade since then.”

“His learning curve is impressive,” Antok added, reaching over to ruffle Keith's hair. Keith batted Antok's hand away, his glare undermined by his pout. “I can't imagine it being very long before he learns to activate his blade at will.”

“I'm _trying_ ,” Keith grumbled, his cheeks dusting a light pink. “But no matter what I do, I can't activate my blade.”

“Not to worry,” Antok consoled him. “You'll learn soon enough how to activate your blade. And then we can begin your real training in how to properly wield it.”

“Okay, can we subject change before I start thinking that we're not talking about Keith's magic Galra lightsaber knife?” Hunk asked, looking faintly green. “Because I'm starting to think that we're not talking about Keith's magic lightsaber knife.”

Pidge nudged Hunk in the ribs with the heel of their foot. “Hunk, please stop talking. This is like when Matt read Game of Thrones all over again.”

“Oh yeah,” Takashi hummed, a sly grin growing on his lips. “He spent an entire month talking about _taming the dragon_.”

Pidge shrieked, covering their ears while Hunk coughed in laughter. Takashi burst out laughing, shaking his head as he reached up to pat Pidge on the back.

“I'm joking,” Takashi said as Pidge hopped onto the floor, glaring at him. “Matt didn't make any jokes.” He paused. “I did, though.”

Keith made a disgusted noise, slapping Takashi on the shoulder while Pidge tried to kick him. Takashi hopped out of the way, while Hunk's coughing laughter only increased, causing him to double over.

“These are the Paladins of legend,” Thace said, shaking his head.

“These are the Paladins who defeated Zarkon,” Kolivan corrected. “Their legend is still being formed.”

“Where is Lance?” Antok asked. He glanced at Thace, who tilted his head curiously. “The Black Paladin.”

“He's...” Allura winced.

“Missing,” Takashi finished for her, because Kolivan had already offered his help in finding Lance, and it wouldn't help if the other Blades didn't know. “Our final strike against Zarkon had his armor explode, and it dazed us. Lance vanished from the Black Lion, and we haven't seen or heard from him since.”

But hopefully it wouldn't be long before they heard from him again. Even if Lance was captured by the empire, Takashi had all the faith that Lance could break out, or gain the attention of someone who could spread the word of where he was being held. If Lance was lost, teleported to some far corner of the universe, then Takashi still had every bit of faith that Lance was fighting tooth and nail to get back to them, to him.

* * *

Sneaking into the kitchen, Takashi found himself on the enemy end of a spatula. Or what he hoped was a spatula – it was made up of three sharp teeth, wide and wedge-like, all pointed to one side.

“What are you doing in my kitchen, Shiro?” Hunk asked, staring him down. He glanced at the cooking burgers, quickly using the spatula to stab and flip them before returning to face Takashi, brandishing the spatula like a weapon. “You know the rules.”

Takashi held up his hands. “You're here, and I'm not touching anything, so I think this counts as supervised kitchen...” Takashi shrugged. “I'm just here to talk.”

Hunk looked him over, before nodding and returning to tending to to burgers. “Okay. I'll listen.”

“I wanted to see how you were doing,” Takashi began, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Hunk stiffened, before refocusing on the burgers with gusto. “With Lance missing and everything. I know you guys were— _are_ best friends.” Takashi hurriedly waved his hands, correcting himself as Hunk gave him a sharp look. “You two are close, and I'm your friend too, and I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

Hunk sighed. “I'm... look, I'm scared. I'm really scared. But that's, like, half my day to day life. I miss him, and I know we're going to find him, but... this isn't like when the Garrison let out for the summer and we went home for two and a half months and I missed talking with him and hanging out with him. At least back then I knew where he was and we could call each other and talk about what happened and stuff. I don't know where he is, or if he's safe, or even what's happening to him.” Hunk turned to look at Takashi. “My best friend is _missing_ , Shiro. And we're still fighting a war here, so I know that not everything's going to be sunshine and roses but can't we just, like, have something good happen to us for once? Can't we just have a victory and let it be a plain old victory without Lance having to get hurt or all of us getting separated or getting mindswished by an evil garden snake-kraken-thing or vanishing into another plane of existence?”

Takashi winced. “It's going to be alright.”

“I _know_ that,” Hunk groaned. “I know that, but this is also a _war_. I've read a lot of wars, Shiro. I wrote a whole paper on World War I back when I was twelve. I did my research back then, and I remember what I read. It wasn't all beating the bad guys and saving people. I _know_ we're going to find Lance, or he'll find us, or we'll find each other, but I don't know how long it will be or what state anyone's going to be in or if the first time I visit his house is to tell his family that he's _dead_.”

Takashi paled, and he swallowed past the lump in his throat. He didn't want to think about that, about meeting Lance's family and attending Lance's funeral. “That's not going to happen. He's alive. We're going to find him alive. I promise you, the next time we see Lance, he'll be alive and he'll want to hug all of us – especially you.” He looked around the kitchen. “Permission to hug?”

Hunk paused, stepping away from the floating stove. He nodded, eyes brimming with tears.

Takashi didn't think he was the best at hugs, but he did his best with this one, wrapping his arms tight around Hunk, holding and squeezing and putting every bit of comfort he had into it. For good measure, Takashi even rubbed _and_ patted Hunk on the back. He felt Hunk sag into him, felt the tension slowly ebb out of Hunk, and squeezed just a little bit tighter.

“He's going to be fine,” Takashi murmured, almost as much for Hunk's sake as for his own. “We're all going to go home together, and years from now we'll be old and grumpy and Lance will complain about his wrinkles while you invent new soups and stews for us to eat and Pidge helps you modify their wheelchair so it can hover and have turbo boost.” He sighed. “I know it seems scary right now, but that's because we're living it. And we've got allies – the Balmerans, the Olkari, the Blade, and whoever else we help and save fighting the empire.”

“Yeah.” Hunk sniffled, before pulling away with a shriek. “The burgers!”

Takashi scrambled to the edge of the room as Hunk removed the burgers from the stove before they could burn. He winced, and turned to leave.

“Shiro!” Hunk called out, stopping Takashi in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder to see Hunk giving him a fond smile. “Thanks. I needed that.” He grinned, holding up an arm. “Leg buddies for life.”

Takashi smiled. He was glad to have helped Hunk, even a little. Raising his own arm, he replied, “ _Best_ leg buddies for life.”

* * *

Takashi sighed as he slid into Blue's cockpit, letting the familiar presence pull him down into her depths. She purred in his mind, offering back reassurance and nudging him away from the pressing presence of Black, still empty, still dark, in the main hangar.

He took care not to look at Black as they shot out into the space around Mallix. Allura and Pidge had found the planet through its distress signal and how it flagged through Pidge's Galra tracker as reading a new and high level of Galra.

The planet looked like a neat place to go, the massive crescent crater carved through the planet filled in with so many buildings that stretched upward and outward and covered as much of the planet's surface as he could see. Mallix's star appeared through the crescent, shining and outlining the five fleet ships laying siege to the planet.

“Alright, we're doing something simple,” Takashi said, speaking up when the looming absence of Lance's direction became too much. “Keith, you and me are our fastest and our best fighters, so we'll draw all those fighters away from the planet and the ships. Pidge, you and Hunk are focusing on taking down those fleet ships. Scan for any prisoners before you destroy them, though.”

“You got it,” Pidge hesitantly replied, Green and Yellow veering off toward the fleet ships.

“What about on the ground?” Hunk asked. “These Mallixum seem like they're fighting off the Galra. What do we do here?”

“Mallix has entered open rebellion against the empire,” Allura explained. “I am getting into contact with the leader of the Mallixum, but for now, we're to provide aid by destroying those fleet ships and directing those fighters away from the planet.”

“It's highly unlikely that these ships will have any prisoners aboard,” Thace interjected, his voice floating over the comms. “Prorok instituted and enforced a law that ships entering combat are not to have prisoners of any kind aboard. If he hadn't been so smug and insufferably pragmatic, perhaps I would feel something other than satisfaction at pinning the solar barrier's downfall on him.”

“My scans are agreeing with Thace,” Pidge said. “I'm picking up three lifesigns on those ships, and all of them are—whoa!”

Takashi glanced back to see Pidge dodge a pair of ion cannon blasts. He focused back in on freezing and tearing into the fighters as Hunk's mega claws appeared.

“I got you covered!” Hunk cried, going into a tight spin. Takashi looked away, returning to Blue and the battle at hand.

Flying Blue was fluid, and Takashi let himself be fluid, let everything flow around him as he flowed around them, blasting fighters and ripping into them and tossing them into one another. Out there, flying Blue, there was nothing else, nothing but Blue and her current that pulled and pushed at Takashi. Together, they let loose everything they had against the fighters, let themselves get lost in the current of battle. It was peaceful, in a strange sort of way – with Blue, Takashi could let his worries slip away, could allow himself to not be weighed down by anything. It was a different sort of peaceful than what he had when he laid in bed with Lance curled at his side, than when he bundled up close to the others on movie night, than when Allura pushed them too far and they had another food goo fight to relieve the tension.

All too soon, the battle was over, and Allura was calling them back into the Castle.

“The Mallixum are grateful for our assistance in removing the Galra from their system,” Allura explained. “They've also offered to give the Castle shelter, and their chieftain extends their thanks and is willing to join our coalition.” She glanced at Shiro as everyone was dismissed. “Shiro, could you stay a dobosh?”

Takashi blinked, looked back at Hunk and Keith and Pidge in confusion, and shrugged helplessly. “I can. What did you want to talk about?”

Allura looked over at Kolivan, before focusing back on Takashi. “While the idea of an interim Black Paladin is still one I oppose, your leadership today was very admirable. Kolivan and I have been discussing the situation regarding the Black Lion, and I hoped that you would be open to taking the lead in the field more often? You would, of course, remain in the Blue Lion, but the team needs a command structure out there.”

“I could,” Takashi warily replied. The idea of being the leader felt wrong, somehow. Like it was stepping foot in Lance's shoes. “But this isn't me replacing Lance.”

“No!” Allura cried, shaking her head. “No, of course not!”

“Voltron might be made up of five equals, but it still needs someone to guide it,” Kolivan said. “No team is ever without someone to lead them.”

Takashi looked from Allura to Kolivan, and sighed. It still didn't sit right with him, but... “I can do it. I will do it. But we're still all equals here. That doesn't change.”

Allura shook her head. “I wouldn't ask it of you.”

* * *

“So what did they want?” Keith asked after Takashi wandered into the lounge. Pidge and Hunk looked up from their latest project—something that looked almost like a robotic arm—and scooted closer.

“They want me to lead the team,” Takashi admitted. He held up a hand before anyone could protest. “I'll still be in Blue, but they want me to do more stuff like with Mallix.”

“Directing us where to go?” Hunk clarified. “Because I'm trying to imagine listening to your orders, and it's kind of weird. Not weird bad, but... just plain weird, because I've seen you run shrieking and use food goo to douse yourself that time you tried to make tamales and caught your chest on fire. It's hard to take you as a serious leader after that.”

“You _what_?” Pidge snorted, while Keith leaned in close.

“When was this?” Keith asked. “Because I can share that time he tried to make meatballs and he spent the next month with no eyebrows and had to regrow his bangs.”

“Hey!” Takashi protested, reaching over to shove at Keith. “No sharing embarrassing childhood stories!”

“What childhood stories?” Keith innocently asked. “This happened like a month before you left for Kerberos.” Keith leaned forward, looking at Pidge, who'd reseated themselves on the other side of Takashi. “Why do you think his bangs are so much longer than the rest of his hair? He had to grow it all back.”

Hunk burst out laughing, slipping to the floor as Takashi shoved Keith into him. Pidge retaliated by climbing onto Takashi and using him as a lounge chair, while Keith resorted to shoving his elbows into Takashi's very sensitive and very ticklish ribs. All four Paladins collapsed on the floor in a giggling heap, and Takashi felt, in that moment, that everything was going to end up alright. They were going to find Lance, and everything was going to be okay. They were going to be fine.

“So we're all okay with this?” Takashi asked, squished against Hunk as Pidge and Keith squeezed them all together. “Me taking the lead like this?”

“Until Lance returns,” Pidge replied. “But we're totally going to use your relationship against you. It's like nepotism, except you're not related to Lance.”

“Relationship-ism,” Hunk offered. “Whoever smooches the Black Paladin gets to be next in line for leadership when they're not around.” He paused, making a face. “Which... actually makes me the leader!”

“What?” Keith looked up at Hunk, horrified yet intrigued. “When did you kiss Lance?”

“He hung mistletoe everywhere and I called his bluff once,” Hunk replied, smugly grinning. “It was a short smooch, but the face he made is one I'll treasure forever.”

“Was this how you got your nickname?” Pidge asked.

Hunk shook his head, his smile vanishing. “Oh, no, that's an entirely different incident that we're never talking about, ever.”

Takashi laughed, falling back onto the floor. Yeah, they were going to be just fine.


	5. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance continues to reconnect with everyone, and finds something new in Keith and Allura. 
> 
> Also there's the Soft Slantok

Flying above Nathil, Lance almost felt like he was back on Earth. The planet was mostly water, with an archepelago spanning across the planet's equator, where the Nathili lived and made their trade in the durable clothes from the marshlands that were the majority of the islands. In the right angle, the green waters looked almost blue enough, and the deep yellow sands almost white enough, to pass for one of Earht's own beaches. The sight of it all was too much for Lance, and he turned away to the battle at hand.

Nathil was the fifth planet in two days that the Castle responded to, the fifth they visited that was in the midst of open rebellion against the empire. The fifth planet, of dozens, that needed Voltron's immediate aid. Allura, with Kolivan and the Blade's help, was still in the process of discerning which distress signals were from planets that were under empire occupation and which were from planets in open rebellion.

Lance directed his attention away, toward the two fleet ships flying along the ocean, their ion cannons trained on the coast, toward the other lions and all the fighting. He pulled along, Blue's claws skimming the water's surface. The fleet ships buzzed with a haze of waterspray kicked up from their thrusters, almost hiding the fighters that flew out and toward Lance. There were well over a dozen of them, all flying in close formation.

“Alright, beautiful, are you ready for this?” Lance asked Blue, feeling their bond settle into one another, Lion and Paladin. Lance grinned as Blue opened her mouth, charging up the ice beam. “Let's go.”

An ion blast soared past Lance, cutting through half the fighters and blowing up one of the fleet ships. Lance froze, turning to spot Red on the beach, an ion cannon mounted on her back.

“What the cheese, Keith?” Lance growled. “I had those!”

He yelped when Keith fired off a second burst, and Lance watched in disbelief as the second fleet ship – and the other half of the fighters – exploded.

“This was easier,” Keith replied, and Lance looked from the exploded ships to Red and back again, finally ending on Red. The ion cannon vanished, and Lance scoffed in annoyance as he turned Blue back toward the coast.

It was hardly the first time Keith had gone off-script, and Lance doubted it would be the last. Every plan that they came up with, Keith was there flying into the fray, destroying fighters left and right and throwing their plans out the window. And every time, after the battle, Keith would fly slow circles around the wreckage, reminding Lance almost of those nature documentaries where vultures circled a kill.

Just like then, Red took off, zipping past Lance and Blue to fly the same, lazy circles around the wreck of the fleet ships. He thought about calling up Keith, thought about asking what he was doing, but...

Lance sighed, turning Blue toward the shore, where the Castle was landing.

“Lance?” Allura spoke up over the comms. “I'm glad you could take care of those fleet ships before they could aid the ground forces here.”

“There wasn't all that much I did do,” Lance admitted. “Keith did all the work. Now he's circling them like... I don't know how to explain it so you'd understand.”

“Like a Kralvin snaring her prey!” Coran helpfully added, and Lance blinked, baffled about what a Kralvin of all things was.

“Dude, just leave him,” Hunk sighed, cutting into their conversation. “I think he's looking for Shiro.”

Lance winced, glancing back at Red, at Keith, before landing on the shore. They'd all been busy planning and fighting and coordinating with other systems that the idea of actively searching each ship they came across for Shiro had felt... pointless, in a sense. His most likely locations were the debris field, which they already knew he wasn't at, Zarkon's command ship (which Hunk and Pidge didn't think he was at, considering the barely-functional state it was in and how the empire probably thought Voltron was going to attack it again if Shiro were kept there), or some remote outpost on the far side of the empire (which was what Allura believed). Personally, Lance hoped that Shiro was off on some planet on his own, fighting his way to send them a message.

Keith's insistent desire to fly over each ship looking for Shiro made a grim sort of sense. Lance recalled what he'd said – what the other Keith had said, not this one, not the one that didn't look at Lance or avoided him – about his childhood, about how his dad left and how he'd thought his mom had left. Lance wondered just how different the two Keiths were, and if it was possible... no. Lance couldn't think about that, not now.

“Yes. Well,” Allura hesitated. “Lance I was hoping that you would accompany me to meet the Nathili chieftain.”

“Me?” Lance blinked, before something almost like a shy grin bordering on sly grew on his face. “Is this because I'm so charming?”

Allura gave Lance a flat look, but it held none of the bite Lance was used to. “Actually, I am curious about what you might have learned from your time in the other universe.”

“Uh, yeah.” Lance nodded. “Yeah, I can– I learned a couple things. Plus, Hunk's too busy helping Pidge to be his lovable self.”

Hunk laughed, and Allura smiled. Lance considered both of those a win. He glanced back at Keith, still flying low over the wreckage, and his smile slipped, just a little. That was a problem for another time.

* * *

The Nathili chieftain stood a full head taller than Lance, their mottled skin colored a bright green. The Nathili resembled, in Lance's opinion, iguanas, if iguanas stood six feet tall with tails just as long as their body.

“Greetings!” the chieftain proclaimed, grinning at Allura and Lance. A second Nathili, colored a deep blue with a splash of red on their throat, stood just behind the chieftain. “I am Ikala, prime chieftain of Nathil. This is my equal and love, Naia. We would like to welcome and thank Voltron for their aid in our fight against the Galra.”

Lance smiled at Ikala and Naia, waiting out Allura's introductions. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, commander of Voltron and the Voltron Coalition. This is Lance, the Blue Paladin of Voltron. We are more than happy to help.”

Lance nodded at Ikala, giving her and her... wife, he guessed, a small wave. “Hi there.”

Ikala smiled at him, before looking past him, at the lions sitting along the coast. Lance heard the distant rumble of Keith's return, and he had to stop from looking back at Red. Keith was an issue that Lance couldn't afford to deal with until they were back in the Castle, until he'd eaten and had several vargas to sleep.

“I admit, we did not believe Voltron was real. It's an old legend, nearly as old as our civilization.” Ikala tilted her head, frowning. “I thought the legends spoke of five lions. Five paladins. I count only four.”

“There are five,” Lance confirmed when Allura hesitated. “The Black Lion—and the Black Paladin, her pilot—are off helping another planet.”

“Yes, of course,” Allura agreed. “With Zarkon's defeat, there is great turmoil within the empire. Your planet is hardly the only one rebelling against the empire. Voltron's goal is protecting everyone, and sometimes that means that not all five of the lions will be present.”

“But...” Ikala tilted her head the other way. “Aren't the five stronger together?”

“And that's totally true,” Lance answered, nodding. “But, like, you saw the Red Lion earlier.”

“I did,” Naia confirmed. She looked past Lance, stars in her eyes. “It's most powerful.”

“Exactly!” Lance grinned. He nudged Allura.

“Each of the Lions is powerful in its own right,” Allura explained. “The Black Lion is the most powerful of the five Lions. It's power stands head and shoulders above the rest. Rest assured that we have devoted _exactly_ as much power as necessary to help liberate each and every planet.”

“So the fact that less lions had to be here is actually a _good_ thing,” Lance interjected, seeing Ikala frown and squint suspiciously. “It means that you had this fight in the bag—you had the advantage. This fight wasn't so bad that it needed all of Voltron. Speaking as a member of Voltron, trust me when I say that things get _bad_ when all of Voltron is needed. Really bad. 'Your planet is about to die' bad.”

“Not that your planet is about to die,” Allura hurriedly added when Ikala and Naia turned their sharp gaze—and sharp teeth—on Lance. “No. Merely... that this situation was not so dire to require all five Lions of Voltron. It is the ideal scenario, really.”

“Our planet not being in danger of destruction is the ideal scenario?” Ikara asked, looking and sounding far too dubious for Lances liking.

“The _perfect_ scenario is not needing Voltron at all,” Lance explained. “But that's impossible. So, ideal scenario. Whatever bad stuff happens, only needs one or two Voltron lions.”

“Beyond that, the Voltron Coalition is intended to be where the different systems of the universe band together to provide aid to one another as required.” Allura smiled, every bit the diplomat. “As such, we would be honored were you to join the Voltron Coalition.”

“You can say no!” Lance added. “We're not trying to push you into this. You have the free option of not joining. You don't have to answer immediately. And we're still going to leave you with a communicator if you say no, so if the empire _does_ ever return and you need our help, we'll come. Even if you say no. That's the way we do things with Voltron.”

Ikala shared a pointed look with Naia, and Lance kept his grin up.

“You have given us much to consider,” Naia began.

“We will take that offer of withholding our answer because of it,” Ikala finished. She waved a clawed hand at the Castle. “Your ship may stay the quintant. I don't promise that we will have a conclusive answer by our next dawn, but you are welcome to stay and...” Ikala trailed off, looking out over the distant marketplace. Lance and Allura followed her gaze to spot Hunk excitedly dragging Pidge from stall to stall, holding up different foods and fruits and plants. “Mingle.”

“Don't mind Hunk too much,” Lance assured the Nathili. “He gets excited around markets. Especially the places where they sell food.”

“It isn't him I'm worried about,” Ikala replied. “It's the red one.”

“Keith?” Lance looked out, and sure enough, he spotted Keith looking none too happy to be besieged by the younger Nathili, a few of them with grayed out skin that looked to be peeling away to reveal a bright and shiny new skin beneath it. “He... yeah, usually he's a lot more social.”

“Nevertheless, we should gather Keith and return to the Castle,” Allura said, looking uncertain. “It has been a long quintant.”

“This is the third planet we've helped out on just this quintant alone,” Lance told Ikala and Naia, leaning forward conspiratorially. “We've more than deserved a couple vargas to rest.”

“Of course,” Ikala said, waving Lance and Allura off. The two moved toward the marketplace, and Lance glanced over at Allura.

“Okay, are we really going after Keith? Because on any other quintant he'd be okay surrounded by that many kids, but I don't think we should leave him like that unsupervised.” Lance looked over at Hunk and Pidge, where Coran had wandered over and was heatedly haggling with Hunk and a vendor over a basket of some kind of fruit that looked like an orange zucchini. “And I think Coran and Hunk are okay over there.”

“Lance, you performed admirably,” Allura praised him, and Lance stopped, staring at Allura. “I imagine they will take the night to consider and by the next quintant Nathil will join the Voltron Coalition. You did excellent work convincing them.”

“What?” He shook his head. “No, Allura, that was all you.”

Allura shook her head. “It really wasn't. You and I worked together here. I proposed the idea, but you did well in making the offer an appealing one.” Allura nodded primly, smiling at Lance. “With a bit of training, we'll turn you into a capable diplomat worthy of the title.”

Lance nodded, faint. “What brought this on?”

“OH, it was something the other Lance mentioned,” Allura blithely replied. “He'd been wondering about your placement within our team. You've reacted much like him, and proven yourself to have potential as a diplomat.” Allura continued on, forcing Lance to follow. “I must say, he's made quite a place for you in the Castle. The other Paladins haven't been quite this close since that first training day you formed Voltron.”

Lance felt his chest tighten, felt his breath hitch. His other self... did all that? He brought everyone together? He knew, from the other universe, that it was possible for everyone to come together as a family, but Lance hadn't imagined...

But maybe he should have.

It had been mentioned, in the astral plane. When the other Lance had pulled him close, he'd said something about fixing things. Was this– was this beginnings of the team as a family what he'd meant?

Lance looked over at Keith, and thought about how open and happy the other Keith had been. He recalled how worried he'd been over ruining a relationship that had been built up between the other Keith and the other Lance, the way they'd become family to one another. The way the other Keith had become family to him, an awkward but earnest younger brother for him to look after like he always did.

He hadn't been lying, back then, when he'd confessed to wanting to stay in that reality. He still wanted to go back, still wanted to be with that team he grew to consider like a second family.

But what he wanted wasn't always what he needed. Lance had wanted to stay, wanted so badly it hurt, but he had needed to leave, needed to return to his own universe. And what he wanted was that other team, that other family, and what he needed...

What Lance needed was the chance to build it in this reality, with his own team. He couldn't go back, couldn't see Takashi again, couldn't hold Takashi, couldn't go back to that reality, but maybe there was a slim chance he could have something just like that family, something almost like it in this universe, this reality. With Hunk and Pidge and maybe Allura.

Speaking of Allura, and of making a family...

“So what was he like?” Lance asked, falling into step beside Allura. “Me. Him. The other me.”

Allura hummed, tapping her chin in thought. “Well... he seemed much more patient. And while he did joke like you do, he didn't do any of that flirting that you do.”

“Hey, I am an _excellent_ flirt,” Lance contested. “And you can talk with Slav about that. He'll definitely confirm that I can flirt.” Lance paused, a horrified look ghosting over his face. “And he'll probably say something like how me and him end up together in some crowforsaken reality.”

Lance and Allura both shuddered.

“In any event, you and he were not that different from one another,” Allura said, bringing the conversation back on track. “He didn't flirt with me, nor did he seek out Keith for that– what did you call it?”

“Our rivalry,” Lance replied in a small voice, thinking about the other Keith, and about how different he was from this Keith.

“Yes, that rivalry.” Allura nodded. “And, of course, there was one other thing.”

Allura looked over at Lance, giving him a sly grin. Lance leaned back as she leaned forward.

“Is this about Taka– Shiro?” Lance winced at the slip, while Allura paused, her sly grin fading into a baffled frown.

“Shiro has another name?” she asked.

“Technically, Shiro is a nickname,” Lance replied, shrugging helplessly. “It's something Keith calls him, and I guess others, but we really only met when Ta– when Shiro escaped back to Earth. His full name is Takashi Shirogane.”

Allura hummed thoughtfully. “Fascinating.” Her sly grin returned. “So. Takashi?”

Lance tilted his head away from Allura, making a dispassionate noise. “The other Shiro said I could call him that. He's– he's really nice. And funny. And the way he smiles is just so...”

Lance trailed off, a fond smile on his face at recalling how Takashi looked in decontamination, his hair flowing in the wind; at how Takashi laughed and stole Lance's food with a grin; at now peaceful he looked while he slept.

“You love him,” Allura concluded, and Lance sputtered in indignation.

“Wha- you– what? No? No. No, I do not.” Lance crossed his arms and nodded to himself. After a moment, his shoulders fell. “...am I that obvious?”

Allura smiled. “Not to anyone who wasn't looking,” she replied, giving Lance an awkward pat on the shoulder. “Or anyone who didn't already know that the other Lance loved him.”

Lance squawked in horror. “Who else knows?!”

“That you love him? That the other Lance loves him? Only myself and Coran,” Allura assured him. “But the other Paladins are aware that he is in a blossoming romance with the other Shiro.”

Lance grimaced, but considered that perhaps that wasn't the worst option out there. He could at least trust Coran and Allura enough not to heckle Lance over falling in love with a different version of Shiro, and the idea of how Keith in this universe would react...

Lance shivered.

“Let's go stop Keith before he pulls out his sword and decides to teach these kids how to stab someone,” Lance said, hoping to change the subject. Allura nodded along, looking confused.

“I wouldn't worry too much about that, from what I've heard the Nathili children are more vicious than the adults.” Allura stopped, sharing a look with Lance. “You don't suppose he would challenge them to a fight.”

“We _really_ need to keep Keith away from them,” Lance concluded, and turned to run toward Keith, who'd pulled out his bayard and looked to be excitedly showing it to the rapidly growing crowd of children that surrounded him.

* * *

Dinner meant everyone in the Castle seated at the table while Hunk and Coran cooked. Allura sat at one end, with Pidge and Lance seated to one side, while Kolivan, Antok, Slav, Thace, and a disgruntled Keith sat on the other. The empty seats (especially the one to Allura's left, where Shiro usually sat) left a pointed imbalance in Lance's mind, especially with how nobody sat close to him. Pidge had opted to sit across from Thace, and, Lance was certain, was building up interest to talk the Galra mainframe and how the empire's communications worked.

“Okay, so it turns out Nathil is full of amazing food!” Hunk gushed, carrying in a huge casserole dish while Coran followed along with two floating trays carrying a steaming bowl and several plates piled high with fish of all things. “Like, they've mostly got these plants but I managed to find something that's like tuna so we've got smoked space tuna!” Hunk set the dish down on the table. “And there's also a bone broth because these fish are _huge_ , like, the size of a medium dog!”

“What is a dog?” Thace asked, glancing over at Coran for an explanation. Coran offered a baffled shrug, and Lance tried to think about how to explain dogs.

“Like...” Lance paused. “A yupper? But young?”

“I didn't realize that your planet had pet creatures similar to yuppers,” Antok noted. “Regulating their diet must be strenuous.”

“Not really?” Pidge replied, giving a half shrug as they dug into the plate Hunk set before them. “My parents have a dog, and we get the smaller bag because he's lazy and loves begging for table food.” Pidge paused, taking a bite. Pointing their spork at the plate, they said, “Hunk, this is delicious.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Hunk took a grandiose bow before seating himself on the other side of Pidge. He wagged a finger at Antok. “Honestly, figuring out how to portion for you guys was hard, but you in particular is hard. You're like three meters tall! What kind of metabolism do you even have?”

“Not quite as high as you would think,” Antok admitted. He looked over his double helping. “But thank you nonetheless. This is very considerate of you. It isn't often that I don't have to worry about potential malnutrition.”

“And Lance,” Slav said, looking him over intently. “I must thank you. This is one of only a small number of realities where Antok and Thace survive. Your switch was a deciding factor, and has drastically changed our chances of dismantling the empire.”

“Wait, what?” Lance looked at Antok and Thace in shock. He... was he really so important? What had happened here, with the other Lance? “That's... amazing.” He chuckled, but it sounded unsteady even to his ears. “I didn't know that. I guess the other me was pretty amazing.”

Antok focused on Lance, while Kolivan tilted his head thoughtfully.

“From what I understand of the situation, you were acting as Black Paladin. You led Voltron for a time.” Kolivan hummed. “Were you not successful as a leader?”

“I was!” Lance yelped, before coughing. “I was. Went up against Zarkon and made sure everyone got out safe.” He paused, thinking it over. “I know that Thace lived in that universe too.”

“Antok, my old friend, lives safely in that reality as well,” Slav cheerfully said, poking at his own plate of space tuna suspiciously. Antok leaned over, making a questioning noise, and Slav batted his hand away. After that, Slav took a bite of the space tuna. “You saved them both in both realities.”

Lance smiled. “That's good to know. Do you know if they stopped Zarkon there too? That Voltron?”

Slav bobbed his head. “There are actually a small number of realities where Zarkon is not defeated in that battle. He fell there as well. And like many other realities, the Black Paladin is vanished too.”

Lance coughed on a bite of the space tuna. “He– he what?”

The other Lance was gone? Oh, that was just... the other Lance didn't deserve that. _Takashi_ didn't deserve that. They deserved a happy ending, deserved to be together.

“He is fine,” Slav said, as if reading Lance's mind. He nudged Antok, giving him a pointed look. After a moment, Antok sighed and reached over the table, placing a comforting hand on Lance's shoulder. Slav preened, and Antok replied with a fond smile. “He is surrounded by family.”

“So do you know where _our_ Shiro is?” Keith growled, glaring at Slav. “If you know so much about the _other_ Shiro, then why don't you tell us where ours is?”

“I am sorry,” Slav said apologetically. “I know the state of the other Shiro because he is still with his team. It's the other Lance who is missing.”

“What?” Hunk looked crestfallen. “Dude. No.”

Keith shoved away from the table with a snarl, stomping out of the room. Everyone watched him leave, and Lance didn't know what to say to stop him. Keith's reaction seemed too much, and Lance recalled again the other Lance's words about fixing things.

“What happened with the other Lance?” Lance asked, looking around the table, his own dinner forgotten. “Here. In this universe.”

* * *

There were only three places Keith could be, and lance was lucky enough to have the right guess.

The training room was full of the sound of clanging, and when Lance stepped inside, he spotted Keith, bayard in hand, going up against the gladiator bot. His sword matched the gladiators own, and Lance could almost see sparks flying when they clashed. Lance watched, entranced, as Keith parried the gladiators sword and had his own sword parried. The two were in a tense stalemate, and Lance watched, worried, as Keith ducked a strike, bringing his bayard up in a two-handed slash that sent the gladiator reeling backwards and into the floor.

Keith huffed, straightening up. Sweat had his shirt clinging to him as he growled, “Start training sequence, level six.”

The gladiator dropped into the room, sword still in hand, and Lance watched Keith rush at it with a harsh battle cry. His strikes, Lance realized, were heavy-handed, and the gladiator moved much smoother with this level. In a fancy twirl of its sword, Keith's bayard clattered away, and Keith grunted, moving away. He glared at the gladiator, pulling out his blade, and moved to rush the gladiator. Lance's eyes widened, remembering the last time Keith went up against an opponent with nothing but his blade, and the injuries that Keith had gotten. All against opponents that were capable of holding back.

“End simulation!” Lance called out, and Keith's strike missed the gladiator. He stumbled to the ground, rolling and coming up at the ready, blade held in a reverse grip.

“I had it!” Keith yelled, getting to his feet. “Restart sequence, level six!”

“End sequence,” Lance snapped out, crossing the distance. Keith was upset, that much was clear, but with what he now knew, with what little Pidge and Hunk and Allura were comfortable talking about...

Out of everyone in the Castle, Lance knew that Keith was the most direct of them all. He didn't say things to spare anyone's feelings, didn't offer false or empty comforts.

Lance knew, that his other self had gotten everyone talking, knew that Pidge and Keith were now slowly bonding over their love of Star Wars, knew that Keith had been introduced to Hunk's amazing hugs. What he didn't know was how the other Lance had gotten on with Shiro. What he didn't know was how close Keith had gotten to the other Lance.

Keith stood in the center of the room, glaring at anywhere but Lance.

“Keith, talk to me,” Lance began. “You're– I don't know what happened, I wasn't here. Everyone else didn't tell me everything that happened.” He glanced at the blade, still in Keith's hand. “I know we haven't gotten along in the past, and I know– I _know_ , okay, that a lot of it is, is me. But if there's something he did, I have a right to know. If we can't work together, then there's no way we can form Voltron–”

“We already _can't_ form Voltron!” Keith yelled. “Shiro's _gone_! Again! He's the Black Paladin and he's gone, and nothing can change that. Without Shiro, we can't form Voltron anyway, so why does it matter if we get along or not? The universe is still getting saved, Voltron or no Voltron.”

Lance stared at Keith in dismay, at how his grip on the blade was white-knuckle, at how his eyes shone with unshed tears.

“That doesn't mean you can just shut yourself away from us,” Lance softly replied. “We all miss Shiro You know that. We all want him back.”

“It's not just Shiro,” Keith snarled, glaring at Lance for a moment before looking away. “It's just– Lance, he– I wanted him–” Keith scoffed, turning away. “Forget it. Leave or you'll get caught up.”

“Don't do this,” Lance said, taking a step forward. He stretched out an arm, reaching out to stop Keith before he did something reckless. “Keith, talk to me. Words are you friend.”

Keith froze mid-step, halfway to his bayard. He laughed, wet and bitter and full of hurt. “You sound just like him.”

Lance blinked, wondering who Keith meant. “Shiro?”

Keith snorted. “Lance.”

“Yyyes?” Lance dubiously replied.

“I mean that you sound just like Lance,” Keith tried to explain. Lance ran the words through his head, and he gaped.

“Oh. I sound like... me.” Lance tilted his head, considering what that meant. Takashi had said that Lance was a lot like his other self, and the others in that reality had repeated it too, but to hear it from Keith, to know that he was still the same person across realities...

“I wanted him to stay here,” Keith said, shoulders shaking. “I liked him better than you, because we talked without getting into all these ridiculous fights over anything, and he was cool and fun and he helped me understand and connect with the team, and– and then he's _gone_ , and Shiro's gone, and all I have is you. And here you are, sounding just like him.”

Keith liked the other Lance more, he realized. Keith wanted the other Lance to stay.

“He didn't like Shiro,” Keith admitted. “They argued a lot, and there was a big fight over where you fit in the team. He swore then too.”

Lance tried to wrap his head around that concept. The other Lance, from the way Takashi and the other team told it, loved Takashi. To end up in a universe where they were little more than teammates... he supposed the other Lance felt a lot like how Lance currently felt.

“They made up, though,” Keith added, still not looking at Lance, still keeping his back to Lance. “Shiro was being a jerk, and he apologized, and I think he was going to apologize to you too.”

Lance stepped forward. He wasn't Hunk, he didn't give the best hugs, but quiznack if Lance didn't try and comfort Keith, even just a little bit. He didn't know this Keith, didn't know what he needed to be comforted, not beyond what little he knew of the other Keith. Lance wasn't family with this Keith.

But _crow_ did Lance want family, did he want to be family.

Keith stiffened the moment Lance pressed against him, laying his head on Keith's shoulder and wrapping his arms tight around Keith.

“I wanted to stay,” Lance quietly murmured. He couldn't, he wouldn't admit this to Hunk, not in a million years, but he had to tell someone. His hands bunched up in Keith's shirt, holding him close, and a small part of Lance's mind balked at how sweaty and smelly Keith was and how he'd gone apples and bananas pressing close like he was. “Over there was... I liked it. Everyone was happier there, and they were like–”

“A family,” Keith whispered. His took a shaky breath, shoulders shivering. “Why does everyone leave me? My mom never stuck around after I was born, and then my dad left, and then Shiro left – _twice_ , and the other Lance, and I'm just.” Keith glared down at the blade in his hand, sniffling. “All I have is this quiznacking knife and I can't even get it to _work_ like it's supposed to.”

Lance thought about the other Keith, thought about what he did, and how he had everyone there to support him. He thought about how this Keith, here in front of him, needed help, and breathed out.

“I'm here,” Lance eventually said. “I know I'm not him, but... maybe I could be. I know what kind of family we can be, I've seen it, and I know that you can't handle this all on your own. The last time you tried you ended up in a hobo shack in the middle of nowhere.”

“That was my dad's old cabin!” Keith protested. “It wasn't a shack, and I wasn't a hobo. It had electricity and running water!”

Lance gave Keith a flat stare, as much as he could when he was hugging Keith from behind. “You had a futon and the table was a board on cement bricks.”

Keith flushed. “Furniture's expensive, and I did my best with what I had.”

Lance snorted, amused. He began pulling Keith toward the door.

“Come on,” he said. “Let's go find Hunk and Pidge. Hunk's a better cuddler than I am, and Pidge has Star Wars. All the Star Wars.”

“I don't need that,” Keith weakly protested, trying to break free of Lance's ironclad grip.

“Nope,” Lance replied, full of false cheer. “We're finding Pidge and Hunk and we're having a sleepover. In your room.”

“What?” Keith squawked, and Lance's grip was loosened by his squirming enough to for him to slip free and dash for his bayard. “No. I don't care what you're thinking, but I'm _not_ letting anyone sleep in my room.”

“Then we'll put the sleepover on the shelf,” Lance conceded, trying to find his footing. Navigating the waters with Keith was like flying blind – actually, it was almost _worse_ than flying blind, because Lance at least knew how to manage that. “But you're not getting out of some serious hug time with Hunk.”

Keith flushed again, a deeper shade of red, and refused to look at Lance while he picked up his fallen bayard. “...fine.”

Lance smiled, walking beside Keith as they went in search of Hunk – and for a late dinner, Lance mused regretfully as his stomach grumbled in protest. It wasn't a perfect start to their friendship, but it was the start of something new. Keith wasn't alone anymore, he had the rest of the team, had Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran, even Slav and Antok. It wasn't a perfect family by any means, and it wouldn't be complete without Shiro there, but...

It was enough of a start.

* * *

Later, Lance wandered the Castle again, this time in search of Pidge. He'd left Keith in the comforting hugs of Hunk, and it was getting late enough that Lance figured the others were either up on the bridge, or down in Green's hangar with Pidge.

Green's hangar, when Lance entered, was a flurry of sound. Pidge and Thace stood across from one another, a display up between the two of them.

“It's _Altean_ , the language of the Castle, how can you _not_ read this?” Pidge groaned in frustration, dragging their hands down their face. “This is what I had to learn to make the Castle make sense. You're going to learn it too.”

“I am _not_ learning this archaic language,” Thace argued, rubbing at his forehead. Lance watched the interaction, peering over to see what they were arguing over.

“What's this bushel of bananas?” Lance asked, squinting in the hopes that all the lines of Altean would magically make sense. It, unfortunately, only made things worse. “Are you guys coding something?”

“I am _trying_ to establish a more permanent communication with the Blade of Marmora,” Thace growled, turning to look at Lance. “While the Green Paladin is testing my patience by showing me this archaic script and expecting me to understand how any of this works. Do you have nothing up to date in this ship? Nothing that the rest of the universe can read?”

“Hey!” Pidge contested. “This is plenty legible! And it's a lot easier to translate than whatever the Galra alphabet is.”

“Galran script is the single most common language in the known universe.” Thace turned his attention to Pidge, glaring at them. “While everyone is fitted with a translation program for spoken languages, of which the dead Altean language is part of, written Altean is nothing short of an archaic nightmare that only the most dedicated of historians and scholars devote decapheebs of their lives learning. And I am neither a historian nor a scholar.”

“So why can't you just run that translation thing and let the Galra code his communicator thing?” Lance asked Pidge. “Because that sounds like a solid thing you could do.”

“Look, I can start with Altean, and then translate to English,” Pidge explained with the boredom of having explained it all several times already. “And from there, I can translate Galra to English. I don't know how to do the reverse. Theoretically I could code up a reverse translator, but even if he manages to make his own code, it's like the universe's worst game of telephone trying to get it to translate through _two separate languages_. And nothing translates perfectly from Galra to English already.”

“It's a _script_ ,” Thace petulantly muttered. “Galran script. How difficult must it be for you to say that?”

“Then learn the language,” Lance said. “Can't you just do that?”

“We don't have the time!” Pidge growled. “The Blade have been bugging me and Coran for quintants about setting up a permanent communication relay between the Castle and their base. And before you say it, we literally can't have Thace tell me the code while I type it it because _it's all in Galra_!”

“ _Script_ ,” Thace grumbled. “ _Script_. It's a simple word. It's not like you speak and write whatever it is that your species is called.”

Lance looked between Thace and Pidge, frowning. “...didn't Sendak turn the settings of the bridge to modern Galra already? Can't we just figure out how he did that, and then... do that?”

Pidge and Thace blinked, glanced at one another, and then at Lance.

“Sometimes I forget that you're actually pretty smart,” Pidge remarked.

“It's the sense of humor,” Lance flatly replied, feeling more than a little insulted. He let it slide—Pidge was a literal genius, they could do tech circles around Lance just like Hunk. “Now, I actually came down here to let you know that I've... kind of smoothed things over with Keith.”

Pidge paused in packing up their laptop, squinting at Lance. “You didn't kill him, did you?”

“What? No!” Lance gaped, taken aback. “Why would you even think that? Besides, Keith knows how to use his blade. He would totally kill me in a fight.”

“Oh, the cub learned how to activate his blade at will?” Thace hummed, glancing at Lance.

“No.” Lance shook his head. “He's still upset over that.”

“He thinks too much.” Thace frowned. “Activating the blade is more of a–”

“Ah-buh-buh-buh!” Lance flapped his hand in Thace's face. “Nope. No. Not the owner of a magical blade, not interested in hearing more stuff about how it's about feeling the self within yourself, and letting your true self shine.” Lance turned away, walking toward the main hangar and the elevator. “Now I'm going up to the bridge. Coran's probably arguing with Slav over the ziplines again.”

“We'll go with you,” Pidge said, jogging into step beside Lance. “It's better to find out the interface coding from up there anyway.”

“Why do you need a direct line into the Blade's base anyway?” Lance asked. “Don't you and Kolivan know it all by heart?”

“There's layers of encryption that were in place when I was stationed in high command,” Thace replied, easily falling in line with Pidge and Lance. “And all direct communications to the base—and other stationed Blades—are filtered through this encryption. If we wish to have any hope of maintaining stable communication with other Blades, much less be able to coordinate an attack without endangering the lives of my fellow Blades, then setting this up is imperative.”

Lance and Pidge stared at Thace.

“This conversation might be the most either of us have heard you speak,” Lance admitted, gesturing at himself and Pidge. “I honestly thought you were naturally quiet.”

Thace stared blankly at Lance.

“Let's get to the bridge,” he said after a moment.

* * *

Lance watched them leave Nathil with a heavy heart. He was glad, of course, that Ikala and Naia agreed to join, and Allura had given Lance a grin and a set of thumbs up that he was entirely certain she learned from Hunk.

“Thanks to Pidge and Coran, Thace has managed to set up a secure line of communication between the Castle and the Blade of Marmora scattered throughout the known universe,” Allura explained. She gestured at the console to the right side of the bridge, where Thace was tapping away. “While the primary language of the Castle of Lions is Altean, we were able to pull up the interface controls added when Sendak briefly took control of the Castle. Currently, that station is the only one set to the modern Galra script, but at Coran's discretion more can be created.”

“That is... remarkably helpful,” Kolivan admitted, nodding approvingly. “And it is well-timed.”

“I received a transmission from the base that Ippotaria has become a source of interest for Commander Morvok,” Thace said.

“Ippotaria?” Antok hummed. “It's been nearly a decapheeb since I last visited there. Do you remember, old friend?”

“The production facility for new drone soldiers.” Slav shivered. “That was where we met. You rescued me from incineration.”

“And together we watched the lunar alignment.” Antok smiled. “It is a memorable quintant.”

Slav sighed fondly, leaning against Antok, who wrapped an arm around him.

“Lunar alignment?” Lancec looked at Coran, who grinned.

“Ippotaria has three moons in different degrees of orbit,” Coran explained, pulling up a hologram of a yellow planet with three moons, each a different size and distance from it. “Once in a decapheeb, the three moons all align as one, and they cast a shadow of perfect darkness upon a single spot on the planet. The alignment lasts less than a dobosh, and it's said that anyone caught within the black spot is ill fated a short life.”

“The odds of a long life decrease by 27.496 percent for anyone within the black spot,” Slav added. He sighed wistfully. “The view of the lunar alignment is a marvelous sight for anyone outside the black spot.”

“And all the better to spend with one's beloved,” Antok added, drawing everyone's attention as he leaned down to gently press his forehead against Slav's. Lance looked from Antok to Slav and back again, and gaped. Shaking his head in disbelief, he gave up trying to understand the logistics before he even started, and focused on his own console.

Allura opened a wormhole, and Lance tensed as they entered, squaring his shoulders the entire time.

They came out on the edge of Ippotaria's system, and Lance heard Hunk gasp. Ippotaria was _massive_ , well over twice the size of Jupiter, and he could spot two of the moons moving close together, with the third approaching. It really was beautiful, and a small part of Lance wished Shiro, either his Shiro or Takashi, were here to see it.

“It seems we've got a bit of luck,” Coran cheerfully began. “The lunar alignment looks to happen within the varga.”

“Have I mentioned how space is awesome yet?” Lance breathed, watching the moons move into place. “Because it is. It is awesome.”

“Dude.” Lance looked over at Hunk, who gazed at Ippotaria with stars in his eyes. “ _Dude_.”

“Sir.” Thace gestured for Kolivan to come over, and together they looked over the console.

“Quiznack.” Kolivan turned. “It seems the rumors were true. Run scans of the planet. Commander Morvok has taken control of the factory. He's creating more drone soldiers than usual.”

“He could be making a bid for power?” Antok mused. “I am surprised. He must be working with another of the commanders.”

“What do you mean?” Keith asked.

“I think we just turned the universe into Game of Thrones,” Pidge answered. “Except with a whole lot less murdering and zombies.”

“Don't ask,” Lance interrupted, holding out a hand at the confused looks on the Alteans and Galra. “Seriously, don't. Because then you're going to tell us that there's some species or something out there that is exactly like a zombie, and that's just... Hunk?”

“Yeah, nope.” Hunk shook his head. “Don't confirm space zombies exist. The universe is already scary enough with the empire.”

“I'll take your word on it, Hunk,” Coran replied. He pulled up scans. “Our scans show that the primary factory and storage facility is... oh dear.”

Keith sighed. “It's in the path of the eclipse or lunar alignment, isn't it?”

“Exactly so, Number Four.” Coran looked them all over gravely.

“Then we'll hit that place fast, before the lunar alignment,” Lance said.

“I don't think we'll have the time,” Pidge admitted. “And there's still like five other factories scattered across the planet to hit.”

“We split up,” Keith said. “Hit everywhere all at once.”

“How?” Hunk asked. “There's five of those places, not including the biggest factory, and only four of us.”

“We shall go,” Kolivan stated. “Antok, Thace, and I are trained for combat, and Antok is familiar with the terrain. We can take one of your podships and fly it down to one of the factories while the Paladins strike at the others. The three of us are more than capable of demolishing one factory.”

“Morvok is there,” Thace said, looking up at them. “His personal ship is docked at the main facility. We may have to take him out as well.”

“We will,” Keith declared, and Lance looked at him in shock.

“Can you really do that?” Lance asked him. “Just kill a person? I thought we were the good guys!”

“We're _not_ killing him.” Keith looked at Lance in shock. “I meant taking him in. As a prisoner. Take him out of the game.”

“This isn't Game of Thrones,” Lance argued. “Pidge, stop feeding Keith ideas like that.”

“Bringing Morvok in as a prisoner could allow us valuable information on the current state of the empire,” Allura conceded. “Get to your Lions, everyone. Lance, the Blade will travel with you. Drop them off on the way to your own target, and then all of you converge on the main facility once the lunar alignment is over. Your main objective is to stop the production of new soldiers and to capture Morvok.”

“What about prisoners?” Pidge asked. “This place is bound to have some.”

Lance shared a look with Allura and Kolivan.

“We'll take care to destroy the power sources of the factories,” Kolivan conceded. “It will be easy enough to do. Once the factories are nonfunctional and Morvok is captured, then we can worry about the state of the prisoners.”

“We'll free them as we go along,” Lance said, giving Pidge a reassuring smile. “And everyone be sure to speak up if we spot any familiar faces in the labor force. Especially human faces.”

* * *

Lance saw Keith zoom past him on the way to the main facility, and iced over Morvok's ship as Keith smashed Red's head into the biggest building of the complex. Hunk pulled out Yellow's claws, ripping Morvok's ship in half while Pidge and Lance landed.

Blue's sonic canon formed, and Lance set it to map the place and find any prisoners.

“I'm in,” Keith said. “Something's not right. The whole place looks like it's already been under a battle. There's destroyed drones everywhere. Some of them look like they were ripped apart.”

“Stay on target, Keith,” Allura ordered. Lance circled the complex, keeping a sharp eye out for movement. He spotted someone running toward a ship, and pulled up the scope, seeing a trio of masked figures dressed in black flee the complex. Lance thought he saw something long and thin in the hand of one of them, before they all vanished completely.

Blinking in shock, Lance pulled out every scan he had, and ran them over the area, finding nothing. More figures left the complex, and Lance scanned them all, raising his eyebrows when they all turned out to be prisoners—none, though, registered on his scan as human.

“Strange,” he muttered.

“What was that, Lance?” Allura asked.

“Nothing,” Lance replied, shaking his head. “Just some escaping prisoners.”

“Guys, I think I just found Morvok,” Keith said, his voice wavering. “He's– he's dead.”

“What?” Kolivan cut in. “Explain.”

“I don't know. He's just– it looks like he was cut by a sword. Same with the rest of this place.” Keith cut out, and a moment later Red pulled out of the building. “Morvok got killed. I guess the prisoners here rebelled and took him out themselves once they realized we were here.”

Lance nodded, thinking it over. Their attacks on the other factories lasted long enough for an alarm to be raised, and with the eclipse, he could see how it would be a sign for the prisoners to rebel.

“So do we pull back?” he asked. “Return to the Castle while it lands and we pick up all these people and send them on their way?”

“Pull back,” Allura finally said. “And afterward we shall discuss where to go from here.”

Lance breathed out, keeping half an eye on Red. Keith sounded shaken up, and he knew that it had to be gruesome to rattle Keith. Maybe he could wrangle everyone together for a couple episodes of Star Trek, and let that get Keith's mind off of the place.

He picked up the Kolivan, Antok, and Thace, and shared a heavy look with each of them when they stepped into the cockpit.

“We will discuss it in the Castle of Lions,” Kolivan said, stopping Lance when he opened his mouth. “This is a strange turn of events.”

“We did a good mission,” Lance offered instead, trying for a subject change. “Second time on a joint mission and nobody on our side died!”

“It did feel nice getting back into the field,” Antok admitted. “And the lunar alignment is as lovely as I remember it.”

“Oh stars take me,” Thace muttered under his breath.

“We will need to run practice drills, but it could prove to be an efficient method of freeing systems,” Kolivan mused. “You're certainly proving yourself to be quite the tactician.”

Lance grinned, despite it all. He wasn't sure how he felt about Kolivan, after everything that happened in the other universe, but the guy was a good judge of character, and a good leader.

“Just wait,” Lance said. “We're only getting started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this marks the last Blue chapter that doesn't involve canon for a while. Keith and his problems really kept this chapter from getting done a lot earlier, but now that they're pushing past it, everything can move forward. 
> 
> And who might that have been, fleeing the scene, I wonder...


	6. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takashi begins to move forward.

Takashi looked down over the planet, at the blue sea, and his heart ached in remembrance. He knew, objectively, that it wasn't the same planet, that there were no sea monsters hiding deep and waiting to eat him, that there were no foods to mess with his mind and make him feel compliant.

Nathil held no mermaids, only a lizard-like race on the band of islands, and they were in full rebellion.

“One of our agents intercepted a call for reinforcements on Nathil,” Kolivan explained. “We've been receiving all sorts of intercepted messages for reinforcements all across the empire, and of some calls of defeating the rebellious factions.”

“Systems are proving victorious, however,” Allura added, giving Kolivan a sharp look. “We are making note of those systems that haven't won against the empire, and Nathil was chosen because it is the closest.”

“We can't just wormhole to all these places?” Hunk asked, looking distraught at the idea of rebellions failing.

“The teludav generator can only handle so many jumps at once, even in peak condition,” Coran warned, wagging a finger at Hunk.

“We're still helping them,” Takashi cut in, giving Hunk a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “We just can't help them all at once.”

Allura frowned, turning her attention back on the main screen, on Nathil. “Here, I would suggest providing support to the rebellion.”

Keith pointed at one spot on the planet, and pulled up the scans. Two fleet warships surfaced out of the ocean, flying toward land. “We should take these out first.”

“I'll do that,” Takashi said, nodding at the screen. “Keith, Pidge, Hunk, you three join up with the ground forces–”

“The Nathili,” Coran helpfully chimed in.

“The Nathili,” Takashi corrected, giving Coran a grateful nod. “They're fighting the brunt of the empire's forces, so whatever help they need, you give them.”

“The Castle will fly in low orbit, drawing the attention of any fighters, and if any of those reinforcements appear, we will hold them off until you arrive,” Allura finished, nodding to everyone. “Let's go.”

Takashi moved toward the blue pillar, glancing back at Kolivan standing beside Allura. Beyond them, the place Lance usually stood at remained empty, unused.

* * *

Takashi flew low, Blue's claws skimming the ocean's surface and sending spray flying. Ahead, the two fleet ships closed in on him, their own thrusters sending up seaspray that created a haze around them.

“Alright, girl, let's get to this,” Takashi murmured, feeling Blue's trills turn bone-chilling cold, familiar and comforting. They fired out at the fleet ship to their left, the ion cannon atop it lighting up in an impending attack.

Ice exploded where Blue's beam struck, growing out and freezing the ship in place. The ion cannon glowed with the unspent attack, and the ice pillar exploded, taking half the ship with it. Ice and shrapnel it the other ship, damaging it, and forcing it out of the way of Takashi's second ice beam. Fighter drones swarmed out of the surviving ship, flying out at Takashi in an angry buzz.

“Okay, let's try something else,” Takashi grunted, pulling Blue down below the surface. The fighters descended as well, and together Takashi led them down into the depths, before turning Blue and shooting back up in a sharp attack that took out half a dozen of the drones and left half of the remaining ones spinning helplessly in the currents Blue left behind.

Takashi turned, biting through two fighters and their claws ripping apart three more. A dozen fighters remained, clustering together, and Takashi grinned. Blue cried out with him, and they surged down below, before repeating the earlier maneuver. With the fighters clustered together, all but two were torn apart when Blue and Takashi surged up, teeth and claws bared.

Afterward, it was quick work to rip apart the last two fighters, leaving only the shadow of the fleet ship far above. They looked up, head tilted in curiosity, before Blue roared, surging up out of the water and taking hold of the fleet ship from below. The ship tilted, Blue's claws digging in and holding on, as Takashi roared in time with Blue. They tore into the fleet ship, firing a laser blast within and pulling away to fire one last ice beam. The remains of the ship were left encased in ice, and Takashi let out a deep breath.

“That was...” Takashi trailed off, looking out over the carnage. “Violent.”

He hadn't been so violent in a while, had been careful to avoid it, and now...

Blue purred in his mind, calming and comforting, reassuring him that it was okay, that this was not like before. That _he_ was not like before. No enjoyment was ever taken, beyond the thrill of flying, of swimming, of the freedom of space and the sea.

“Yeah,” Takashi admitted, letting his tension and worry slip away. “Yeah, you're right.” He paused, grinning. “That was pretty cool, though. That move we did? Diving deep and surging up? That was so amazing. Lance is going to lo–”

Takashi cut himself off, coughing. Of course Lance would love hearing about what Takashi did, but it was another story to add to the long list of catching Lance up when he returned. After Lance was rescued, or escaped, and was back on the Castle with Takashi and the others, then they could breath easy and tell each other stories about the amazing things they did.

“Let's... go help the others on land,” Takashi said, mostly to change the subject. “They might need help, and we're done over here.”

Blue trilled, questioning, hesitant, and Takashi looked down at the water.

“I guess... it wouldn't hurt to swim there,” Takashi admitted, already in agreement. They could ride the waves to shore, swim and bound along the currents, and take what enjoyment they could get. Takashi could already hear Lance's reproving speech about how it was a kind of torture to avoid letting loose every once in a while, about how important it was to just have some fun. And it _would_ be fun, flying in his element, as much fun—if not more fun, really, since the battle was over—than it had been on the mermaid planet, against the Baku.

They dived below the surface, laughter bubbling up through Takashi's chest.

* * *

Walking onto the beach, Takashi could still feel the last giggles of his laughter, and Blue shook herself dry, sending seawater raining across the shore. Blue rumbled in amusement, giving Takashi the impression of Red's irritation at getting wet. Takashi snorted, covering his mouth to muffle the laughter, and imagined Red as one of those cats, fluffy and prim and more than willing to claw her way _away_ from baths and sinks.

Blue huffed in amusement at the image, and Takashi hunched over when she returned an echo of Red's begrudging admittance.

“Shiro?” Keith asked over the comms, “Are you doing something to Red? She's getting all... huffy.” Keith scoffed after a moment. “Well you _are_! What would you call it then?”

Takashi snorted, gasping when his laughter became too much.

“Sorry,” he wheezed, trying to reign in his laughter. “I don't think Red likes the water like Blue does.”

“She wouldn't,” Keith muttered in agreement. “Fire and water don't mix. What did you even do?”

“Blue shook herself dry, and some of the seawater got on Red,” Takashi explained, amused.

“Why was Blue wet?” Keith asked. “Shiro, what did you do?”

“Shiro,” Allura cut in, opening a visual channel. “I was hoping to do this with Hunk, but he has gone off with Keith and Pidge to search the market. The Nathili chieftain has agreed to meet and hear about the Voltron Coalition.”

“They have?” Keith piped up, sounding distracted. “That's great.”

“Sound a little more excited, Keith,” Takashi dryly chided.

“I am!” Keith protested. “Oh, hey, Pidge found some coral-looking– oh quiznack that's alive! Pidge! Hang on!”

Keith's line cut off, leaving Takashi and Allura looking at each other warily.

“They... should be safe,” Allura said, sounding far too uncertain for Takashi's health. “Coran has already gone down to the market to join them. He should keep Keith and Pidge from insulting the Nathili.” She paused. “And Hunk might be enough to keep them out of too much trouble, I hope.”

Takashi winced. “Yeah. We should meet with the chieftain.”

Takashi pulled up a little map Allura sent him, and left Blue, moving to join with her and the chieftain. He was surprised to find that the Nathili looked like iguanas, standing on two legs and grinning with one another as they clapped their sharply clawed hands together and sunned themselves atop their domed houses. Allura stood across from two Nathili, one bright green while the other was a deep blue (making the red coloration over their throat stand all the more out).

“Ah! There you are,” Allura exclaimed, reaching out and pulling Takashi beside her with an ease that betrayed her superstrength. “Shiro, I would be honored to introduce the Nathili chieftain Ikala and her, uh...”

“Equal and love, Naia,” Ikala finished, giving Naia a fond look. “On behalf of all of Nathil, I wish to thank you for your aid in stopping the Galra's continued presence on our planet.”

“I admit, Voltron does not look at all what the legends described,” Naia said, looking out at the coast, where the Lions were all sitting, their particle barriers active. “There are five of the beasts, aren't there?”

“Indeed,” Allura confirmed, looking almost as uncomfortable as Takashi felt. Lance's absence still weighed on them, in everything they did. “The Black Lion is currently... unavailable. And the Black Paladin is also unable to join these talks.”

“Why?” Ikala asked, giving Allura and Takashi sharp looks. “Where is the Black Lion?”

“He's off in another system,” Takashi blurted out, drawing everyone's attention. “Another planet needed help and we couldn't be in both places at once so he insisted that we go here and he goes there.”

“The legends said that Votron was all five together,” Naia said, frowning at Takashi. “Would just one piece be enough?”

“There were four Paladins here,” Allura replied, gently smiling. “You might say that there were too many Paladins present to help. It's only if the system is in dire straits that Voltron would need to form.”

“That's right,” Takashi added. “From what I heard, you were already going to win this rebellion. I don't know if you really needed help from more than two of us.”

“It is true,” Naia admitted, tilting her head. “Our people held the advantage, and it was only due to yourself and the Green Paladin that we were able to win our freedom so quickly.”

Takashi smiled, and let Allura take the lead. Diplomacy was more suited for her and Lance, not him.

“And have you given any thought to joining the Voltron Coalition?” Allura asked. “We would be pleased and honored to count Nathil among the many systems free of the empire's control.”

“Must we answer immediately?” Ikala asked. “I have doubts about what you intend.”

“We don't need an immediate answer,” Takashi said, giving Ikala an uncertain smile. “And we would be more than happy to answer any questions you have.”

“Is it necessary to join this coalition?” Ikala asked. “Be truthful in you answer, if we were to say no, what would happen?”

“Voltron would accept your answer,” Allura replied, while Takashi took a step back. “We are busy removing the empire's influence over a great number of other systems, and we would still leave you with a communication device to contact the Castle of Lions directly should the empire return to Nathil in greater force.”

“And you would come?” Naia pressed, looking intently from Allura to Takashi. “This promise of future aid isn't just empty words?”

“It's the truth,” Takashi cut in. “We wouldn't leave you alone if you called for help.”

“Then why create this coalition at all?” Ikala asked.

“The known universe is vast, and there are a great number of systems that would require aid,” Allura began. “Too many for Voltron alone to protect. The Voltron Coalition would act to ensure interplanetary trade agreements are maintained, and that, should multiple systems come under danger, they would be helped by others within the coalition and beyond. The coalition seeks to replace the empire, allowing each system their independence without forcing wars for territory or resources.” Allura's smile faltered. “I... have heard stories of the universe before the empire and Voltron, and I am sure that you have heard as well. I would not wish to return to that time. Together, we can create a peace for ourselves and others. Voltron would still remain active, but the intent is for the free planets to have the chance to come together as one.”

Takashi nodded, impressed at Allura's speech, and saw Ikala and Naia were both watching her with interest as well.

“You can take the time to think about it,” Takashi finshed for Allura. “We only want to see the empire brought down. Taking down Zarkon was the first step in that, and we couldn't do that alone. Voltron is more than just the five lions—it's a symbol of hope. A symbol that the coalition will keep. If you join us, all we ask is that you be the symbol of hope that Voltron represents.”

Ikala shared a look with Naia, and tilted her head. “If that is all, then we shall consider it.”

“And we shall accept whatever answer you provide,” Allura assured Ikala and Naia. They watched the Nathili leave, wandering over toward the market. “That was very inspiring, Shiro.”

“Thank you.” Takashi looked out over the Nathili, at the children laughing and the adults sunning themselves, at the group of Nathili children tossing the head of a drone robot amongst themselves. In the distance, he spotted the yellow of Hunk's armor. “I've always been good at inspirational speeches. When I was younger, my family wanted me to push for debate. They probably saw me as a future politician.” He sighed. “But I liked space too much, and for a while there, I was kind of... estranged from my family.”

“That's not good,” Allura said, her voice quiet. “Everyone should be close with their family.”

“When I graduated early from the Galaxy Garrison, which was about a year—a pheeb—before going on the mission to Kerberos, we reconnected. Turns out they're pretty proud of me for following what I love.” Takashi smiled, but it felt halfhearted. “I wonder what they would say if I came back now, piloting a big robot lion and saving the universe.”

“They would still be proud of you.” Allura reached out and patted Takashi on the shoulder. A smile graced her lips, although it didn't quite reach her eyes, which shone with unshed tears. Allura blinked, looking out toward the market. “Come. Let's go find the others. I have never been in a market before, and this seems like quite an experience I would love to have.”

“Let's do that,” Takashi agreed. His family would be proud of him, and when they met Lance, they would love him just as much as he did.

* * *

The Castle's night cycle wasn't so much a night cycle as it was the various species deciding to go to their rooms and turn off the lights to sleep. To that end, Takashi (with a little bit of Lance's help) insisted that they each have a way to tell Earth time alongside galactic standard, otherwise they might stay up for days at a time.

A more private reason, one that Takashi hadn't mentioned to anyone else, was that Takashi wanted a frame of reference to tell time. What he remembered of his time with the Galra, alongside what he heard from the prisoners they'd rescued already, felt like a place where time had no meaning, where a week could pass in a single day and a month could feel like two years.

Currently, it was half past eleven at night, according to Pidge's clock, and Takashi was busying himself with wandering the Castle instead of sleeping. He knew what lay back there, his empty room and cold bed, Lance's face creams and his sleep mask sitting on the shelves, unused. Takashi wasn't yet ready for that, for a life alone, for a bed alone. He didn't want to go back to before, where there wasn't the calming presence of Lance to stave away the nightmares and flashbacks that came with sleep.

Takashi turned a corner, lost in thought, and bumped into someone. Stumbling back, he looked up and nearly fell back at seeing Thace and Kolivan.

“O-oh. Sorry.” Takashi stumbled to his feet, pulling himself to the present. His thoughts on his time in captivity and the arena were of the past, his thoughts of the Galra as his guards and as his captors were in the past.

“You look... not healthy?” Thace remarked, sharing a baffled look with Kolivan. Together, they looked down at Takashi. “Are humans supposed to lose coloration like that?”

“Not always,” Takashi admitted, letting out a shaky breath. “You just surprised me. I'm still getting used to there being Galra in the Castle, and there being good Galra.”

Kolivan sighed. “You're hardly the first former prisoner that a Blade has come across and gotten doubt from.”

“Don't speak of my experiences on the matter,” Thace grumbled. “It's hardly relevant that you spent much of your youth 'misplacing' prisoner logs and setting prisoner transports to mysteriously explode with no survivors.”

“You were in the empire?” Takashi perked up, glancing at Kolivan in surprise. “You... you freed prisoners?”

“A large number of them, nearly a decapheeb ago,” Kolivan replied. “Until someone realized that I was a common factor, and I had to stage my timely demise. Before that, I was undercover as a pilot in charge of prison transport.”

“You faked your own death?” Takashi shook his head. The idea of Galra in rebellion was something that he was still getting used to, but he'd thought that Ulaz and Thace were rare exceptions, the small number of spies infiltrating the empire's ranks. It was easier, to think that there were only a lone handful of Galra working within the empire that opposed what the empire did. It was easier than the alternative, than knowing that there were an unknown number of Galra that were opposed to the empire's workings, but still performed their duties.

“It was better than the alternative,” Kolivan answered, glancing at Thace. “It is better that I still live while the empire believes me dead, than to have died.”

Thace huffed, straightening up. “I was under the impression that there was a necessary sacrifice to be made. Antok can be rather forceful.”

Takashi glanced at the nearby elevator, watching Slav step out, practically dragging Antok along and down toward the bedrooms. He watched the two go on, and dazedly waved when Antok peered back and gave them a respectful nod, ruined by the lovestruck look in his eyes.

“I'd say he looked forceful,” Takashi commented, after Antok vanished around the corner. He glanced up at Thace, giving the Blade a sly grin. Thace grumbled, giving both Takashi and Kolivan a baleful glare. “Really, he did.”

Kolivan patted Takashi on the head, gesturing for them to take the elevator. “Come along. Perhaps we can find Coran and together we can make some part of this ship understandable.”

“We could find Pidge,” Takashi offered. “They might be able to help with translation. Pidge and Hunk already made a program to translate Galra alphabet into English, so it might be possible for Pidge to adjust the program to translate Altean into Galra alphabet.”

“It sounds laborious and excessive,” Kolivan bluntly replied.

“Script,” Thace muttered, giving Takashi a strange look. “It is the Galra script, not whatever that was you said. And do humans not have human script?”

“We do,” Takashi replied. “It's just... written language, though. And there's not really a single language that Earth could claim as the primary language spoken and written. English is probably the only language that we all share.”

“Your planet has _multiple_ languages?” Kolivan asked, warily watching Takashi. “Are you referring to regional dialects? Certainly there are many languages in the known universe, but perhaps the translation isn't being clear enough?”

“Oh, no, you're understanding me perfectly,” Takashi said. “Earth has multiple languages. There's a couple that most of the planet knows because of our past, but... really, English is one of those languages.”

Thace shared a look with Kolivan, a silent conversation that ended with Kolivan grunting.

“And you believe that Pidge will be able to help make the Castle accessible for us to work?” he asked at length.

“I think Pidge is your best shot outside of Coran.” Takashi shrugged. “They might be with Keith or Hunk in Hunk's room. I was...”

Takashi trailed off, letting out a yawn. Kolivan and Thace shared a look. They stepped out of the elevator, gently nudging Takashi into coming along.

“You seem tired,” Kolivan remarked. “Have you gotten sufficient rest?”

“What?” Takashi hummed, fighting off another yawn. “I have.”

“It doesn't sound like it,” Kolivan replied. “I have dealt with more than enough cubs avoiding rest in favor of working, and you have the look of a cub that's falling asleep where you stand.”

“I'm fine,” Takashi insisted, waving off Kolivan's concerned gaze. “It's just been a long couple of quintants.”

“All the more reason for you to get some rest now,” Kolivan replied. He glanced down the hallway, where Pidge and Hunk could be heard talking. “If I must, I will bring Princess Allura and your teammates into this. You should all be resting. Our understanding of humans may not be exhaustive, but I have been on this ship long enough to know that you have a set schedule of alertness and rest.”

“I noticed that as well,” Thace added, glancing speculatively down the hallway. “Current matters can wait the several vargas you need to rest. Far be it for the Paladins of Voltron to fall because they decided that work was more important than rest.”

“Fine,” Takashi groaned, waving them off as he walked over to the door to his room. “Are you happy now?”

Kolivan and Thace shared yet another look, and Takashi started to dislike that aspect, the Blades ganging up to enforce reason on him. He tried to lead them past his room, and toward Hunk and Pidge (and Keith, since they were likely to find him there and then Kolivan and Thace could become their problem and not his), but Kolivan hummed disapprovingly.

Takashi had a flat look on his face as he entered his room. The moment the door shut, his shoulders slumped, exhaustion weighing him down like a lead cape. Slogging toward his bed, Takashi grabbed his pajamas and went through the motions in putting them on, the blue a comforting familiar. He avoided looking at the neatly folded black pajamas, at the bottle of face cream that sat beside it, at the sleep mask that lay atop them.

Crawling into bed, Takashi grabbed the furthest pillow and pulled it close, taking a deep breath. It smelled like Lance, a mix of his shampoo and face mask and the salty, earthen way that was, beneath it all, _Lance_.

He wanted to hold it close, wanted to cuddle it and hug it and bathe in Lance's scent, but... he couldn't. He wouldn't. If he did that, then Takashi would have only memories to remember Lance by until they found him, however long that would be. He couldn't hug the pillow like he wanted, couldn't have Lance there like he wanted.

Worse still was that he wanted someone there, wanted to be beside someone. He didn't want to be alone again.

Sighing, Takashi pulled away, sneaking out of bed. Peering out his door, Takashi warily looked out both ways before sneaking out, pillow under arm. He started when the door to Lance's old room slid open, and Takashi stared, frozen mid-step, as he saw Keith yawning, eyes squeezed shut and one hand slid up his shirt to scratch at an armpit. Keith blinked, locking eyes with Takashi, and froze mid-scratch.

“Uh,” Keith eloquently said, slowly lowering his arm to his side. “I... can explain?”

Takashi looked from Keith to the open door of Hunk's room, where Thace's voice, tight with frustration, echoed out of, and back to Keith.

“I think I'll take that explanation,” Takashi offered. “I was going to see if I could join you guys in bed.”

Keith rolled his eyes, stepping into the hallway. “You don't have to look so guilty about it.”

“I'm not,” Takashi defended, hugging his pillow close. “I wasn't expecting you coming out of there, is all. You caught me by surprise, Keith.” He paused. “What... were you doing in there?”

“Waking the dragon,” Keith dryly replied, looking Takashi in the eye. Takashi coughed, glancing away awkwardly. “I'm joking! I was getting some sleep in a room that doesn't smell like a mechanic's garage.”

“They're not that bad,” Takashi weakly offered. “Your room doesn't smell that bad, at least.”

Keith snorted. “Come on, Shiro. Let's get some sleep. Maybe we're both enough to wrangle Pidge and Hunk out of whatever argument they got into.” He made a face. “And stop looking so guilty. You're always welcome to join us in bed. To sleep. Nothing to involve your... dragon.”

Takashi smiled, following Keith along toward Hunk's room.

* * *

Ippotaria looked painted a pale blue under the penumbra of the lunar alignment. Everything was tinted by the light of the blue sun, and Takashi held a grim look as he flew low toward the nearest factory.

“Hang on,” he said, pulling up internal comms to Kolivan, Thace, and Antok. “I'll be slowing down enough for you to drop, but not fully stopping. Can you handle that?”

“I survived going up against Zarkon's witches twice,” Antok replied. “I think I'll be surviving a moving drop just fine.”

“This isn't like then,” Kolivan countered. “This is active field combat. Oh, it's been pheebs since I last saw combat.”

“It's been never for me,” Thace bitterly added. “Why did I have to be a part of this? Aren't the two of you enough to take down one single factory?”

Takashi smiled, listening to their conversation. Ahead, he could see the factory, a stark purple against the green countryside.

“The Blade is entering open combat and rebellion against the empire,” Kolivan explained. “We will all need to see field combat in the quintants to come. And without a Black Paladin, we will need to engage more than we otherwise would.”

Takashi winced, reminded that this factory would have been besieged by Lance, had he not vanished. Lance's absence meant a lot of things, not the least that how they approached battle was different.

“Not all of us, surely,” Thace grumbled. “This has been too long since I saw field combat in person. The most excitement my station ever saw was Voltron's assault on command.”

“Well, that's going to change,” Takashi added. He pulled Blue up, dodging a blast from the turret. With a cold roar, Blue shot an ice blast, turning the massive turret into a glistening pillar that shuddered under its own weight. Blue flicked her tail, sending off a laser blast that shattered the pillar and the turret with it. “We're coming up on the factory, so be ready to drop in thirty ticks.”

Takashi flew low, Blue's claws brushing against the grassland, and called out a warning when he came close to the factory, opening Blue's bay doors for the trio of Blades to drop from.

“We're out,” Kolivan said, and Takashi pulled up, flying over the factory and picking up speed. “Good luck on your mission.”

“I'll swing by to pick you up when my factory's destroyed,” Takashi promised, flying off. Blue picked up speed, and he sank into Blue, preparing to take out his own factory.

* * *

Takashi held his bayard at the ready, Kolivan at his side, while they were flanked from behind by Antok and Thace. The storage facility was in chaos, broken sentry drones littering the corridors. Morvok's forces looked to be destroyed by internal battle, by the rebelling prisoners. Pidge and Keith were down on the ground, helping the prisoners out and away from the facility, while Hunk flew the perimeter and kept watch for anyone escaping.

“Whoa!” Hunk cried out. “Dude, I think I just saw that lady Galra from the weblum! Wait, where'd she go? She vanished, that's– that's weird, right? That's weird.”

Takashi froze, looking up at Kolivan in confusion. “Hunk, are you sure?”

“I'm not wrong,” Hunk assured him. “I know what I saw back then, and I'm sure I saw the same armor. But then she completely vanished, it's so strange.”

Takashi shared a worried look with Kolivan, and the four ran toward the control center.

“Hunk, run scans of the area,” Keith ordered. “We're not letting whoever that was get away this time.”

“What do you think I'm doing?” Hunk complained. “I'm running every scan I have and they're all pulling up nothing! She _literally_ vanished, like some creepy ghost.”

Takashi materialized his lance, holding it close as he flanked the doors to the command center with the Blades. With a sharp nod, Thace opened the door and Antok barreled in, Kolivan and Takashi close behind.

The room was a mess, broken control panels sparked, and the lights flickered, highlighting the bloodied and broken forms of Morvok and his underlings. Antok sheathed his blade as he walked up to Morvok (who looked maybe as tall as Takashi, which made him small compared to any other Galra), placing a hand over his chest.

“He's dead,” Antok said, masked face looked up at Kolivan. “What now? Our target's already dead.”

“Same with the rest of this place,” Thace said, walking around the room and looking from panel to panel. “Whatever information he kept here, it was destroyed.”

“We pull back,” Kolivan ordered. “Staying here is a bad idea.”

“Guys, we've got a problem,” Takashi said, opening up comms with the others and the Castle. “Morvok's already dead, and there's nothing here we can pull. The whole place is trashed.”

Takashi stepped out of the control center, closing his eyes and focusing on the comms.

“Guys, I'm still not picking up anything where I'm scanning, so I don't know what kind of magic cloaking she's got, but it is good,” Hunk said. Takashi snapped his eyes open, keeping his lance at the ready as he led the Blades back to Blue.

“Shiro, what do you mean Morvok's dead?” Allura asked, her voice sharp and cutting through the purple bleeding at the edges of Shiro's vision as he stepped into Blue's cockpit, Kolivan a step behind. “And what does trashed mean?”

“It means the place is destroyed,” Pidge answered. “The prisoners here don't know what happened, and they want to stay on Ippotaria. I gave them a communicator, since apparently this place is their home, and also I snuck like five to take apart with Hunk and see how they worked.”

“You _what_?” Coran gasped, affronted.

“Shiro, pull back to the Castle,” Allura ordered.

“Maybe the empire's fighting itself?” Keith guessed. “It could be that the empire's doing our job for us?”

“They might have misplaced allegiances, but this kind of underhanded tactics is dishonorable, even by the worst of Galra,” Kolivan growled. “This was no Galra who did this.”

Takashi shivered, flying Blue away from the storage facility, the others falling in line behind him. He didn't like the idea of some new force out there, even if they were fighting against the Galra empire like Voltron. If whoever it was fought so viciously, then at some point Voltron would have to go up against them, possibly being pushed to fight to the death.

Takashi gripped Blue's controls tightly, his knuckles turning white. He wasn't that person, wasn't the Champion, wasn't a killer. He was a Paladin now, a part of Voltron, and no matter what happened, they weren't going to resort to dirty tactics to take down their enemies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When next we return it's with a LONG chapter as we dive into SEASON 3 EPISODES WE'RE DIGGING DEEP WITH CANON DIVERGENCE MESSING WITH CANON
> 
> Also yes definitely there's gonna be a LONG chapter for the next two chapters like DID Y'ALL THINK OTHERWISE THERE'S A TON TO COVER SEE Y'ALL IN PROBABLY A WEEK WITH LIKE A 10K CHAPTER


	7. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voltron cannot be without a Black Paladin.

Lance stood at the ready, sighting down his bayard. The small, wide tunnels of Labreex meant that they were crouching, bent double the entire trip down. They hadn't encountered any drones so far, but they hadn't found the Labreexans who sent out the distress signal either. Lance couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he wasn't complaining.

“Okay, I'm officially calling space foul here,” Hunk complained, on his hands and knees. “Like, not having to fly? That's awesome. Being in enclosed spaces? I'm okay with that. But this? Tiny tunnel that can't fit me? This is awful.”

“At least you can _fit_ ,” Antok dryly added from far behind the group, crawling along on his belly. His mask glowed faintly in the dark. Lance's own helmet was closed off, along with the rest of the team's helmets, the atmosphere too poisonous to breathe.

“Yeah, why are you here again?” Hunk asked.

“Because we are here at the behest one of the Blade,” Antok replied. “One that I personally taught and mentored. She's important to rescue and aid in the rebellion.”

“What does she even do?” Pidge asked, peering around the corner ahead. Lance envied them, being so small in stature that all they had to do was duck their head to fit in the tunnels.

“And where is anyone?” Keith asked, frowning. “This doesn't feel right.”

“Hey!” Pidge pointed around the corner. “Found some structures. I think we're in a ventilation shaft.”

Keith groaned, rushing ahead of Pidge, pulling out his bayard.

“Whoa, hey!” Lance called out, reaching out to grab Keith and pull him back. “Cool your jets. This is a finesse mission. You heard Allura and Kolivan. This place is a lab. They're mining the stuff that makes ion cannons. We can't just rush in or else we explode half the planet.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Keith grumbled, crossing his arms.

“We carefully sneak in and explode everything,” Lance replied, grinning at Keith.

“ _Without_ exploding half the planet,” Hunk added. “I've seen a couple schematics for the ion cannons, and what the empire's doing here looks like we can just fry their systems in a controlled EMP, take out whatever Galra aren't turned into Galra-sized paperweights, and all in, like, a varga.” Hunk crawled up behind Lance, holding up a single smug finger. “ _And_ without walking into a trap or having to fight an unkillable robeast.”

“Don't you like when things are simple?” Pidge commented. Ahead, the dirt cave vanished to darkly purple metal leading to a grated end. Jogging over, Pidge hopped the last distance, over a vertical shaft that Lance nearly fell down when he moved ahead after them.

“Whoa!” He pinwheeled back, steadying himself before glaring at Pidge. “Hey, warn us next time.”

“Hey Lance, there's a drop in here,” Pidge replied, not giving Lance a glance as they peered at the gate and beyond. “Try not to fall.”

“Why are you so mean?” Lance asked, hopping over the shaft and glancing back at Keith and the others. “Hey, there's a drop ahead. Hunk, Antok, I can help you past it. Keith, think you can cut your way inside? Like we did back on the Balmera?”

Keith snorted, rolling his eyes as he sliced through the vent cover and jumped out beyond. Lance shared a look with Pidge before gesturing for them to go on after Keith. He turned back to Hunk, who was staring flatly at the shaft.

“Dude, can we seriously call space foul on this?” Hunk reached out, letting Lance half pull him over the shaft and past it. “We're basically escorting Pidge to make an EMP and then walking out the front door. I could have made the EMP back on the Castle!”

“I know, buddy.” Lance patted hunk on the back, pressing to the wall as Hunk crawled out of the vent.

“I can make it across fine,” Antok called out, easily crawling across the drop. “Go along.”

Lance sighed, moving to jump out of the vent. A small part of him hoped that this mission would have a different ending than the last one where they met with a Blade. He didn't want to meet someone else willing to die.

* * *

The Blade in question was busily talking with the local Labreexans. They looked like moles, but with huge white eyes and massive clawed hands and feet the size of their head. As one, they turned to look at the entering group, and the Blade tilted her head, one hand resting on the curved blade at their side. She looked about the same height as Kolivan, thickly built with broad shoulders. A mask covered the bottom half of her face, a small bubble field stretching out from it around her head.

“Kevak,” Antok greeted, perking up. “Has there been any problems?”

“Some,” Kevak replied. Lance saw her long face and pointed ears, fur colored purple with hints of black. “The Labreexans wish to believe Voltron's own Paladins over my word of their safety.”

“Hi!” Hunk waved as Lance stepped forward. He leaned over, whispering to Lance. “They look so cute.”

“Hey there!” Lance greeted, looking down at the lead Labreexan, a rotund older one, their hair sprinkled with yellow. “We're Voltron. We're here to help.”

The Labreexan looked them over. “There are four of you. And another Galra.”

“The Black Paladin isn't here,” Keith curtly cut in, his shoulders squaring in irritation. Lance couldn't say that he disagreed, already tired of having to explain again and again why they were a group of four instead of five.

“Actually, we were originally going to send just one, because Pidge here is more than enough to wipe out this pesky problem you've got,” Lance cheerfully explained, giving Pidge a pat on the head. They swatted at him, before moving past the group. “But we've got an ally—Kevak here—who is in fact a Galra, and one that's fighting against the empire. Just like our good friend Antok here.”

“They are trustworthy?” the lead Labreexan asked, glancing between Antok and Kevak warily. “They are Galra.”

Lance sighed. “They're good. And besides, you're here because of Kevak.”

“We were under the belief that this Kevak was to execute us all,” one of the Labreexan spoke up.

“Not at all,” Kevak replied, her entire posture screaming that she wanted to slap her hand over her face and drag it down. “Officially, they're being sent to mine a new vein of ore.”

“Let me guess: it doesn't exist?” Pidge offered. Kevak canted her head.

“We're talking to it,” Kevak said. “You.”

“Clever,” Antok commented, canting his head.

“You are allied with Galra?” the lead Labreexan asked, somehow managed to look the paladins over dubiously. “You are... truly Voltron?”

“Definitely,” Hunk confirmed, nodding. He paused. “I'm nodding.”

“I don't understand what a nod is,” the Labreexan blankly said, clawed fingers twitching nervously. Kevak shared a blank look with Antok, who... Lance wasn't sure if it was returned.

“It's a gesture of confirmation in our species,” Lance explained. “You can be sure that we're the real Voltron. No one else is out here fighting in giant robot lions. And these guys are good Galra. They're fighting against the empire just like us. They even helped us take down Zarkon.”

“The rumors are true?” The lead Labreexan turned to their fellows, muttering furiously, before they turned to Lance, waving a paw through the air. “Very well,” the Labreexan conceded. “You are Voltron. We thank you for this opportunity to be freed from Galra rule.”

“And we're glad to be here,” Hunk replied, smiling.

“Pidge, this is basically your mission from here on,” Lance said, clapping them on the shoulder. “Shut this entire place down and then we can walk everyone out the front door.”

“There's a front door?” Hunk screeched, while Pidge moved to the nearest console and, with Kevak's direction, hacked into the place. “Why didn't we take that in? Why did I have to suffer crawling in that vent?” Hunk steeled himself, taking a deep breath and grabbing Lance by the shoulders. “We could have avoided this.”

“Yeah, nope.” Pidge shook their head. “That front door is on hard lockdown always, and we'd need at least Yellow to dig a hole through it. The only way we're walking out is if I do... this!”

“You shut off the locking mechanisms?!” Kevak gasped.

“And now we've got smooth walking to the power core.” Pidge looked up at Kevak. “Let's go. We can get this done in five doboshes. Probably ten if I have to decrypt anything.”

* * *

Lance laid back onto the dining room chair with a groan. He glanced across the table at Kolivan, who was giving him a considering look.

“What?” He asked. “The mission went well. Pidge took down the power source of the mine and we had the place leveled once it was evacuated. I think Antok's taking Kevak to meet Thace and Slav.”

“That is good news,” Kolivan admitted. “And I have had many discussions with Princess Allura regarding the direction of future missions.”

Lance looked around the room, where Hunk was fending off Pidge, Allura was feeding the mice, and Coran was entering with Slav and looking for all the universe like he would rather be back fighting Zarkon. Keith, however, was surreptitiously—and badly so—glancing between Lance and Kolivan.

“Is that so?” he mused, throwing his voice across the table for everyone to hear. “And what's Allura have to say on the matter?”

Allura froze, glaring at Lance for a brief moment before sighing and standing. “I was hoping to bring this up upon the next quintant, but instead,” here she glared at Kolivan, although it was mostly annoyance, “I should inform you now. With the growing number of planets requiring aid and in rebellion, I have decided that you shall be performing individual missions to secure allies and free systems from this point forward.”

“And you will be working alongside members of the Blade of Marmora, myself included,” Kolivan added. “We have spent too long hiding in the shadows. It is time that we entered open rebellion like the rest of the known universe.”

Lance nodded, watching Kolivan with interest. He vaguely remembered Allura saying something to Kolivan about the same thing. He smiled, just a little.

“So does that mean we've got more missions with you guys?” Pidge asked, fingers twitching to pull out their laptop.

“Of course,” Kolivan replied, glancing at Allura. She nodded. “The Blade will still be forming our own missions against the empire, but I will be coordinating and attending missions from within this ship for a time.”

Lance hummed, looking over the table as Hunk and Coran entered, trays of food—something resembling pasta and smelled heavenly to Lance—floating along beside them. Grinning, he stood and helped serve the food, welcoming Thace, Slav, Antok, and Kevak all entered, crowding around the table for their own helping.

“So Kevak,” Lance began, watching the newest addition carefully. “What do you think of the Castle?”

“It is large,” Kevak tersely replied. “I would guess of equal size to Zarkon's own command ship. How do you maintain it with such a small crew?”

Hunk and Coran shared a pointed look.

“It's largely self-sustaining,” Coran replied. “Some systems require constant tending, but there area number of areas where the Castle self-regulates. The team of Alchemists contracted to aid in creating the Castle of Lions were among Altea's best and brightest.” Coran preened. “Why, my grandfather himself designed the teludav generator.”

“Fascinating,” Kevak replied, sounding entirely uninterested in Coran's story. Her eyes glanced around the table. “Is the Black Paladin not joining in this meal?”

Lance winced, while Keith growled, “He's not here.”

“Away on mission then?” Kevak mused. “He must be busy.”

“Shiro's gone,” Keith growled, looking two seconds away from either fighting Kevak or leaving.

“He vanished during our big battle with Zarkon,” Lance explained. “He's been missing ever since. We've been trying to find him but–”

“No you haven't!” Keith burst out, slamming his hands on the table and glaring at Lance. “You haven't been looking for him at all! It's like you don't even care about finding him.”

“Hey!” Pidge growled, glaring at Keith. “We're just as worried about finding Shiro as you are.”

“You could have fooled me,” Keith bit back.

“Keith!” Lance interrupted, voice just sharp enough to cut through to him. “Cool your jets. It's going to take time to find Shiro, and we talked about this. The smaller the empire gets, the easier it's going to be to find him. What would you have us do instead of freeing all these systems?”

“I–” Keith cut off, looking away. He groaned. “I'd... have us fighting the Galra, and hacking into their prisoner logs.”

“Which I've been doing,” Pidge countered. “My brother might be somewhere with one of these rebel planets, but my dad's still a prisoner. I want to find Shiro just as much as I want to find my family. I've been working with Thace to improve our software, but it's taking time.”

“The empire has cut off all access I once had,” Thace added, watching Keith curiously. “Pidge and I are skilled in programming, and the empire has held the highest security. Even higher, now that they have changed their passcodes after discovering my betrayal, and after our joint attack that brought down Zarkon.”

“The empire is on the defensive,” Kolivan spoke up. “What Voltron has managed to do against the empire in these three movements has been more than anyone else in the known universe had managed to do in the ten kilopheebs since the empire began its expansion.”

“I thought a movement was a week?” Hunk badly muttered.

“See?” Lance gestured around the table. “We're already doing everything we can, Keith. Three months ago we were little earthlings living our lives! Now we're awesome heroes, we beat down an evil immortal emperor, and I'd bet that it's going to be a year, maybe, before we can say that there's no more empire and we can all go home.”

“Earthling?” Kolivan murmured to Antok, sharing a confused look.

“Lance is right,” Allura added, looking over them all. “The Galra empire is being dismantled far faster than any of us ever expected it to be. It won't be long until we discover where the Galra– where the empire,” Allura corrected, glancing at Kolivan and the Blade, “is holding Shiro, or where the Black Lion teleported him. The same can be said of Pidge's family.”

“Splitting up means your chances of dismantling the empire increases by 28.428 percent,” Slav chimed in, before wilting. “Although it also means that your chances of dying horribly increase by 34.376 percent.”

“And how much would they decrease when we find Shiro?” Lance asked, because he knew everyone wanted to know that.

“When there are five Paladins piloting the lions?” Slav hummed, before brightening, stars in his eyes. “Survival increases by 49.89 percent. And chances of dismantling the empire increase by 65.97 percent!”

“...seriously?” Pidge asked in disbelief. “That much?”

“Then we _have_ to focus on finding Shiro!” Keith protested. “You heard the bytor. The math doesn't lie.”

“Yeah, we did,” Lance countered. “And we're still splitting up. At least until we find Shiro. You know we need to focus on fighting the empire right now. What was that thing he told you—that phrase about patience.”

“Patience yields focus,” Keith replied, closing his eyes. His shoulders slumped in defeat, as he fell back into his chair.

“I know the big picture is scary,” Lance said. “Honestly, I try not to think about it a lot. But the big picture here is the empire. We can't spend all our time playing Where's Shiro if it means the empire has time to get itself in order. And finding Shiro doesn't mean a thing if the only reason we do is because the empire's using him as a trap.”

“Dude,” Hunk breathed. “That's dark. Scary dark. And a Where's Waldo reference? Really?”

“You're right.” All eyes snapped to Keith, who sighed. “You're right. Finding Shiro is important, but we can't do that if I'm just... rushing.”

“Your signature plan typically is 'Keith rushes in',” Hunk dryly added. Keith shot him a glare, and he held up his hands. “Hey, it's true. Now, can we get back to the important things. Like, I thought a movement was a week? Now it's a month?”

“New dinner topic,” Pidge loudly declared. “cultural hot pot; we all teach each other new words.”

“Seconded!” Hunk nodded enthusiastically.

“I must admit myself curious about your human time slices,” Coran mused, a sharp glint in his eyes. “We never did learn whether a tick or one of your time slices was longer.”

“Dinner first, clock party second,” Lance cut in, returning Hunk's grateful look. He glanced at Keith, who laid back in his chair, resigned. Lance made a note to talk to Keith later.

* * *

That evening, Lance found himself wandering the halls of the Castle. It mostly consisted of Lance walking around before going down to Green's hangar to see Pidge. He knew he should be visiting Keith, knew he should be making sure that Keith was okay, but...

Lance sighed, stepping into the elevator, and directly into Thace's chest.

“Ah.” Thace looked down at Lance, Pidge peering over his shoulder. “Greetings.”

“Hey.” Pidge squinted down at Lance, before grinning. “Going somewhere, tiny one?”

Lance looked up at Pidge, giving them a sly grin. “You're still small. This tallness isn't real.” He glanced at Thace's resigned expression, and gave him a soft smile. “How did they rope you into this?”

“...rope?” Thace repeated, before shaking his head when Lance opened his mouth. “You mean to ask how I came to carry this human?”

“That is my question,” Lance replied, moving to stand beside them. “And I was wondering where you were going in such a hurry.”

“To find Coran,” Pidge replied, still grinning smugly down at Lance. “I was going over the video of Matt's escape and Thace thinks he can pinpoint the species of the space pirates that freed Matt. We're heading to Coran to see if we can play the video up on the bridge and get more details than my computer can process. The screen resolution is amazing. I swear I can pick out Matt's individual pores. And Thace is carrying me because he's got long legs.”

Lance hummed, nodding along. “Well, Coran's been around the universe a lot too. You should hear some of the stories he's got. He might be able to help sort out who's from where in that video you've got.”

“Oh yeah!” Pidge lit up. “I forgot about that. Even if it has been ten thousand years–”

“Kilopheebs,” Thace tiredly corrected under his breath.

“Ten kilopheebs,” Pidge adjusted with an overdramatic sigh, “I guess Coran's been around the universe enough to point out a planet or system that could help.”

“And perhaps I could see about a more accurate Altean to Galra script translator,” Thace grumbled. “He still won't budge about that. Even though Altean is a dead language!”

“Wait what?” Pidge turned their head to clearly stare at Thace. “No one else knows Altean?”

“None but scholars, and even those wouldn't have the sort of experience reading it as you would,” Thace confirmed. “It's an ancient base for modern script, but hardly one that most of the known universe can read. I can safely say that every scholar studying Altean would gladly sacrifice their own limbs at the chance to speak with either of the Alteans here—or you.”

Lance cackled, reaching up to ruffle Pidge's hair. “Congrats, Pidge, you learned space latin!”

Pidge snarled, biting at Lance's hand, teeth snapping in open air as Lance pulled back.

“Well quiznack that,” Pidge growled. The elevator stopped, the doors opening to the bridge. “We're finding Coran, getting that info, and then I'm going to learn the Galra alphabet.”

“Script. Galra script,” Thace sighed, already resigned. He glanced down at Lance, who stayed in the elevator. “And yourself?”

“I'm looking for Keith,” Lance replied. “Also Kolivan. They both kind of vanished after dinner.”

“Keith's still trying to turn his magic knife into a magic sword,” Pidge replied. “It's kind of weird to watch.”

“Kolivan is leading a practice session with Antok, Keith, and Kevak upon the training deck,” Thace answered. “I would be there too, but this little one has managed to engage my services.”

“Good to know,” Lance said, waving them off. “And good luck in finding your brother!”

“I don't need luck,” Pidge called back, grinning. “I've got the power of spite and determination behind me! Let's see the Galaxy Garrison's faces when I come back with their missing astroexplorers! _And_ proof that aliens are real!”

Lance's last view of Pidge was their cackling face as they continued to piggyback ride Thace toward the bridge.

The training deck was a flurry of sounds and motion when Lance entered, and he yelped at the sight of several gladiator bots on the move against Keith and the Blades. Two of the gladiators turned away, swords in hand, and rushed at Lance. In less than a tick he had his bayard out, firing off four shots. The gladiators went down, the holes in their heads and chests sizzling.

Grinning, Lance turned his aim on the other bots as he backed up against the wall. Sidling along, Lance kept watch as Kolivan, Antok, and Kevak all moved in a single unit, carefully engaging the remaining bots and tag-teaming. When Kolivan and Kevak had the gladiators distracted, Antok came swinging in, leaping over the group and behind the gladiators. Antok's tail curled around one gladiator's leg, and flung it wide, while his blade sliced another clear in half. He rolled, blocking two more gladiators, which Kolivan and Kevak easily took care of, before the trio came together, going after another trio of gladiators. The ease with which they worked together reminded Lance of Keith's trials, of the increasing amount of soldiers that Keith fought.

To the side, Keith was holding his own against a lone gladiator, his knife flashing and sparking as it blocked and parried each strike. His movements were quick, fierce, and had Lance impressed. It wasn't the same as before, Keith's movements more sure, measured. Lance's jaw dropped when Keith performed a jumping flip, sweeping out his leg and knocking the gladiator off its feet—the same move Lance had just seen Antok perform. He really was learning from Kolivan and the Blade of Marmora.

The gladiator bot twisted as it fell back, sword poised to stab Keith, and Lance moved, barely taking the time to aim before firing. The first blast hit the gladiator bot's hand, knocking the sword away; the second and third hit the gladiator in the shoulder, sending it away from Keith, and in the center of its head.

Keith blinked in surprise, looking back at Lance. On the other side of the room, Kolivan, Antok, and Kevak dispatched with the last of the gladiators, and straightened up.

“Hey!” Keith cried, glaring at Lance. “I had that!”

“Yeah, right up until it nearly stabbed you,” Lance dryly replied, lowering his rifle. “I heard you were training but I didn't think this was what Thace and Pidge were talking about.”

“I still had it,” Keith grumbled, crossing his arms as he stood up. “What are you even doing here?”

“I was looking for you,” Lance answered, his rifle dematerializing back into his bayard. “I wanted to talk about future missions.”

“What about them? I've been helping save the universe just fine so far.” Keith frowned, staring at Lance quizzically.

“And that's great,” Lance agreed. “But you need to cool your jets about Shiro.”

Keith tensed, glaring at Lance. “Why? Don't you want him to be found? I– we need him. There is no Voltron without Shiro.”

“We do need him,” Lance admitted. He glanced over at the Blades, who wandered closer. “And we all miss him, Keith. But it doesn't do us any good spreading the word that we're down a Paladin. The empire's control over the universe is falling apart. I meant what I said earlier, about how likely it is that we'll all be returning back to Earth in a pheeb, maybe less.” Lance glanced over at Kolivan, who hung back and was watching him, gaze speculative. “I'm including Shiro in that. Yes, we defeated Zarkon, but there's still an entire empire. What little history I _do_ remember is that if the Galra empire is anything like the Roman Empire, it won't fall apart quickly. We already talked about this, remember?”

“I do!” Keith growled, and repeated, in a softer voice, “I do. I know. The smaller the empire gets, the easier it is to find Shiro. And for him to find us.” Keith scoffed. “But I _hate_ this! I _hate_ feeling like I'm not doing enough to find him! I've already got Red's bioscanner running all the time for him, and I've been–” Keith cut off with a groan. “It doesn't feel like enough.”

“Each system we free from the empire is another one that Shiro isn't at,” Lance explained. “And it's one more system that he can go to and call us from if he's traveling. We're giving Shiro the chance to find us as much as we're trying to find him with each system we free from the empire.”

“We can do that?” Keith asked, looking at Lance dubiously. “Just have one thing serve multiple purposes?”

“It's called multitasking,” Lance replied, smugly nodding. “It's a real thing. Hunk taught me it.”

Keith sighed, uncrossing his arms. He turned his knife over in his hand absentmindedly, twirling and spinning it between his fingers and around his hand. “Do you really believe that we can find Shiro like this?”

His voice was so unsure, so open, that it shocked Lance. He blinked, clearing his throat as he gave Keith his softest, most reassuring smile. “I really do believe it. Now tell me about how you're doing. Get any closer to understanding how to activate that blade of yours?”

“Almost?” Keith glanced down at his knife before frowning in frustration. “I'm getting better with it, but it still feels like I'm missing something. Hopefully the missions with the Blade will help.”

“Actually,” Kolivan cut in, looking from Keith to Lance. “I was intending for the Blade to work with Lance for the majority of missions.”

“Lance?”

“Me?” Lance said at the same time that Keith spoke. They shared a baffled look, before turning back to Kolivan. “Why me? I thought you'd work with Keith. He's part Galra, and actually a member of your group!”

“And he is a member of our group,” Kolivan replied, giving Keith a pointed look. “And while we do intend to assist all of Voltron in freeing systems from the empire's rule, you,” Kolivan focused on Keith, “have not yet shown the restraint necessary to lead. You are young, cub, and still have far too much to learn if you ever wish to lead.”

“Ha!” Lance cackled. “See, even he thinks you're too hotheaded.” Lance saw Keith bow his head, shoulders stiff, and his mirth slid away. “Hey, I'm joking. Mostly. Like, almost entirely joking. You're doing fine. You're a total genius, Keith, I'm sure you'll get the hang of this soon enough.”

“I don't want to lead.” Keith looked up at Lance and the Blade, his grip on his knife tightening that Lance could hear the leather of his gloves straining. “I'm not replacing Shiro.”

Lance blinked in surprise, sharing a look with Kolivan. Kolivan gestured at Antok to take Kevak and leave, but Antok tilted his head and gave a half-shrug. Kolivan bristled, and Lance returned his attention to Keith.

“We're just talking about missions,” Lance said, watching Keith carefully. “No one's talking about replacing Shiro.”

Lance recalled the other universe, recalled how Keith had piloted Black in both universes. He didn't know what Shiro thought, or what Shiro had told Keith, but...

“No one's replacing Shiro,” Lance declared. “He's our leader, and when he comes back, he'll keep being our amazing leader. But he's not here right now, so we're going to have to take the lead on our own little missions.”

Keith gave Lance a pointed glare, before snorting. “That's right. Shiro's the Black Paladin. I'm not.”

Lance blinked, frowning. “Keith, no one's asking you to take the lead here. And we're not saying we should stop looking for Shiro either.”

“I'm not worried about that,” Keith snapped. “I _know_ that. Stop repeating it like I'm some kind of child.”

“Technically we're _all_ kids,” Lance blandly replied, receiving an annoyed glance from Keith. To the side, Kevak's jaw dropped, and Antok gave Kolivan an amused look to his glare. “But I'm ignoring that. I just wanted to remind you that we're all hurting from Shiro's loss, and that you need patience.”

Keith's glare softened. “Patience yields focus?”

“Patience gets results,” Lance confirmed, smiling. “Now come on. It's getting late and we've got a busy quintant ahead of us.”

“I'm not tired,” Keith replied, before clenching his jaw through what was obviously meant to be a yawn. Lance smugly watched Keith exhale through his nose, before nodding in defeat. “Okay, fine.”

“Good.” Lance grinned in victory. He turned toward Kolivan, who had returned to watching Lance curiously. “So about that mission tomorrow? I'm working with you guys?”

“You and Pidge both,” Kolivan replied. “There's two of our agents in need of extraction on a settlement in the Azzon system. They were in pursuit of a slaver's transport when they were found and forced to crash on Azzon's fifth moon, Zefila. The slavers themselves, I am told, operate on the third moon, a mountainous place called Dalib...”

* * *

Two weeks later, Lance flew down into the atmosphere of Puig, the planet's central city sprawled out below, curved mountains covering the sides. The heavy clouds kept the mountaintops hidden, and from within Lance saw laser blasts shoot out. Fighter drones flew up and fired at him, and he spun in a corkscrew, dodging their blasts.

“Sorry for the turbulence,” Lance casually said, pulling up a small feed of Blue's holding bay, where Kolivan and a dozen Blades stood at the ready. “We're getting a warm welcome.”

“We are holding steady,” Kolivan replied, one hand gripping the overhand for support. “The Blue Lion's inertial dampeners are remarkably strong, even here.”

“Yeah, speak for yourself,” Hunk chimed in, groaning. “All this spinning is upsetting my stomach.”

“Still get motion sickness?” Lance gave Hunk a grin. “Dude, that's– whoa!”

Lance sharply dodged a massive ion blast, and glanced around for the source. High above, on a curving mountaintop, he spotted a fleet ship looming closer. Blasting at two fighters, Lance turned toward the city, spotting the purple of over a dozen sentry drones rallying. Several fighters tailed Lance, and he glanced down.

“We're coming up on the drop zone,” Lance commanded. “Be ready in thirty ticks.”

Lance dodged an ion blast, flying past the drop. He growled, Blue snapping at a pair of fighters that swooped down after him.

“Dude, you just flew past it,” Hunk commented, then grunted. “Oh man, what's hitting me?”

“Two fighters are tailgating you,” Lance pointed out, spotting Yellow flying around lasers with a pair of fighters dangerously close behind. “You want me to hit them?”

“No. I got this.” Hunk's grin could be heard, and Lance laughed as Hunk pulled to a full stop, the two fighters slamming and exploding against Yellow's back. “Get going, dude. I'm good here.”

“On it!” Lance grinned. “Alright, Kolivan, Antok, we can't get you to the drop zone, so you're going to have to enter the battle from the outskirts. You guys ready?”

“For several ticks now,” Antok replied.

Lance flicked the bay doors open, dropping low to the ground. For laser blasts flew out from above, and Lance grunted as he dodged. “I can't slow down any more than this, but I'll draw fire away from you. Opening the hatch now!”

“Go, go, go!” Kolivan called out, and Lance pulled away, seeing the Blades hit the ground running.

Blue's tail flicked, sending a dozen shots out, each hitting a dozen different fighters. Far above, Lance spotted Yellow twist upside down, leaping along a curled mountaintop. Flying higher, Lance whooped, hopping atop each of the oncoming fighters. On a whim, Blue grabbed a fighter, shaking it before tossing it at a pair of fighters, sending all three crashing. Lance glanced over at Hunk, where Yellow snagged a fighter itself and chomped down, crushing it in two.

Lance grunted, flying up and bounding along the nearest mountain, curving along it and twisting back, where he fired Blue's ice laser at the five fighters, perfectly line up below. A neat column of ice covered them, then shattered when Lance fired at it with a flick of Blue's tail. Ice scattered over the area, glittering in the air. Blue landed atop the mountain, preening and prancing through a bound, the ice gleaming and glittering all around Lance and Blue.

“Oh yeah, who's awesome? It's me–” Lance yelped as the fleet ship fired its ion cannon at him, and he growled in time with Blue. “Oh you did not just ruin my groove!”

“Lance, come in!” Kolivan called out, and Lance glanced down at the village, where a giant ion laser—the same one, it seemed, that fired at Lance earlier—hung from a mountaintop. Kolivan and the Blades were all hidden behind boulders and beneath outcroppings, pinned down from advancing as the ion laser fired down at them.

“I read you,” Lance replied, dodging another ion blast. “You guys okay down there?”

“We're pinned by heavy artillery,” Kolivan said. “We need air support.”

“Don't worry, we're on it!” Blue's sonic cannon appeared, and Lance roared with Blue, sending out a devastation shockwave that battered the fleet ship and tore into it. Lance cut off the attack, letting Hunk tear into the ship while he turned his attention back down, flying low. The last of the fighters went after Lance, and he grinned as the ion laser fired at him. He dodged, the blasts hitting the fighters. Lance grunted when Blue took a hit, the ion laser focusing on him. Flying circles, he glanced down at the city, where the sentries had taken up defensive positions and were firing at the places the Blades were hiding. Lance cried out when an ion blast hit Blue again. “Hunk, I can't get close. Think you can get a sneak attack?”

“I think I can get this from behind,” Hunk laughed, Yellow's mega claws appearing as he flew high above the mountain before dropping into a sharp dive. Yellow spun, claws pointed out, and Lance whooped in joy as Hunk drilled through the mountain and the ion laser both. “How's _that_ for digging deep?”

“Awesome!” Lance crowed. He glanced over at the remaining fighters, spotting several pull back to a second fleet ship that was rising into orbit. “Hunk, that was so cool! And we've got them on the run. Let's take out the last of these fighters and finish saving the planet. What do you think the chances of us getting a parade are?”

“I'd settle for seeing what food they've got,” Hunk replied. “I'm pretty sure I spotted a wheat field back there. Wheat! Do you know how much that opens up our dining options!”

“Pizza, pasta, and bread?” Lance asked, unable to keep the smile off his face.

“Flatbread!” Hunk cried. “Bread bowls, pizza—oh, I've missed pizza so much, Lance—and _definitely_ pasta, I've wanted to make linguini alfredo since finding that one root spice back at Vrepit Sal's. And with Kaltenecker we have the dairy to make cheese, so pizza could be on the table.”

Lance chuckled. “Hunk, my man, I have wanted to know what Allura and Coran think of Pizza since Coran showed us that paladin lunch. I'm behind food gathering completely.” Lance recalled Shiro's own distaste for the paladin lunch, and his smile dimmed, just a little. Clearing his throat, Lance straightened up. “Well, let's take down the last of these fighters first.”

* * *

Lance posed, taking selfies with the Puigians. This was the part of being heroes that Lance liked the most. He was a people pleaser at heart, and seeing all the Puigians so happy warmed his heart. Laughing, he waved off the last group and promised to upload them to the infonet as soon as he could. He didn't know what the infonet was, and wondered if it was like the space equivalent of the internet, and what the likelihood was of Pidge and Hunk tapping into space internet wifi if he mentioned it existing.

Scanning the joyous crowds, Lance spotted Hunk to one side, gratefully accepting a plate piled high with all sorts of foods and chatting with several Puigians. He held up what looked like a flatbread, and the dismayed expression when he bit into it left Lance smothering his laughter. On the outskirts of the party, Kolivan and the Blades were gathered. Lance's cheerful demeanor waned at how distanced they were from the Puigians. Waving and hopping in place, Lance called out, “Hey! Kolivan! Antok! Come on, join the party!”

Aware of all eyes turning on him, Lance kept up his huge grin as he practically bounced over to Antok, taking him and Kolivan by the hand and pulling them closer.

“Come on, you guys,” Lance said, looking up at them. “It's hardly a celebration if everyone that helped free these people aren't celebrating.”

“Yeah man,” Hunk added, wandering over. He kept glancing forlornly at the flatbread on his plate, which had faint teeth marks around one corner. “You did just as much as we did in freeing the Puigians. At least enjoy the free food.”

“I do not think that they will enjoy sharing food with us,” Antok remarked. He grabbed the flatbread, dipping it into a small bowl of stew and biting into it with ease. “A shame. The zalg is a local delicacy.”

“Zalg?” Hunk asked. “Is that the flatbread or the stew?”

“The... this?” Antok held up the flatbread. “You call it flatbread?”

“It's bread, and it's flat,” Hunk explained. He picked up a spoon, taking a taste of the soup. Stars burst in his eyes, and Lance grinned, shuffling away as Hunk and Antok began an animated discussion on Puigian food.

“So what about you?” Lance asked Kolivan, grinning and waving at a pair of Puigian kids that were looking at him uncertainly. They waved back, glancing warily at Kolivan. Lance took a step forward, looking over at Kolivan. “Come on. I know small kids, and they're the key to getting adults to like you. You make those kids smile, and all these parents that are giving you the stink eye won't be making it for much longer.”

“I am Galra,” Kolivan said, but he took a step forward, looking hesitant. “My people have oppressed theirs for dozens of pheebs. The Puigians have every right to be wary.”

“You're still moving forward,” Lance said, smiling. Kolivan nodded, letting out a sigh.

“I admit the idea of garnering praise is... nice.” Kolivan glanced at the crowd, where an elder stepped forward. “But you should remember which of us is a part of a growing legend. Did you not see the mural?”

Lance paused, looking back at Kolivan. To the side, Hunk joined them, glancing between the two of them quizzically. “What mural?”

Kolivan nodded to the side of a building, where... Lance blinked, staring at Voltron. The mural was simple, depicting Voltron, and a lion, and the Castle. All around it was a language that Lance couldn't recognize, the Puigian dialect. Lance chuckled, looking at Hunk excitedly. “Dude! We're legends!”

“Lions of Voltron,” the elder loudly called, spreading his arms wide. Lance and Hunk turned to the elder, and put on their best smile as the stepped forward. “We must thank you for all that you have done for us. You have saved us from the threat of the Galra.”

“All in a quintant's work,” Lance proudly declared. He nudged Kolivan, his elbow hitting Kolivan in the waist. “And we couldn't have done it without the help of the Blade of Marmora. They're pretty cool too.”

“...yes,” the elder said at length, glancing at Kolivan and the other Blades suspiciously. Turning his attention back on Lance and Hunk, the elder brightened. “Where are the other Lions of Voltron? Will we see Voltron?”

“Voltron!” one of the crowd cheered, and it was echoed by several others, quickly becoming a chant as the Puigians looked on expectantly.

Hunk shared a quick glance with Lance, wincing. “Yeah. About that... we can't actually form Voltron.”

“It's just us two here,” Lance quickly added, the crowd's enthusiasm dying down. “We've been really busy with the other systems under the empire's control, so each of us has been splitting up.”

“But you _are_ the Voltron that defeated Zarkon?” the Puigian elder asked, looking Lance and Hunk over dubiously. “Can we not see Voltron on this day?”

“You'll see Voltron!” Lance promised, wilting at Hunk's sharp look. “We're actually building up a coalition, a sort of free republic of systems. In two quintants, the Castle of Lions is hosting a number of leaders of various systems to see if they're interested in joining the coalition. If you're curious, we can answer your questions there.”

“Why are you allied with Galra?” one of the Puigians asked.

“Do you not fight them?” another cried.

“Are you the real Voltron?” a kid yelled out.

Lance sighed as Kolivan and Hunk both glanced at him. Sometimes he wished that he wasn't actually the leader, no matter how much it felt right, no matter how much it reminded him of the other reality.

“We _are_ the real Voltron,” Lance confirmed, turning his full attention on the elder, who was turning out to be the Puigian leader. “And we're not allied with the empire. Neither is the Blade of Marmora. They're a rebel group that have been fighting the empire from within until a couple spicolian movements ago. The Blade of Marmora were important in Voltron's attack that took down Zarkon. We couldn't have done it without them. Literally. Zarkon couldn't have been taken down like he was if we didn't have the Blade as allies. Voltron itself wouldn't be here if it weren't for the Blade. And I trust Kolivan and the Blades as much as I would anyone else. They might look like creepy ninjas, but they're nice. I've fought side by side with several of them.”

“That is a bit much to claim,” the Puigian leader said. He glanced at Lance and Hunk. “You are... still against the Galra?”

“We're against the empire,” Hunk answered.

“And any Galra that stand with it,” Lance added. “So you can count on us to keep you safe. In fact, Hunk here has a communicator from Princess Allura herself.”

Hunk started, fumbling with the plate of food before passing it over to Antok, who happily began to eat the fried beetle. Pulling out the communicator, Hunk proudly presented it to the Puigian leader. “Here. It's got a direct line to the Castle, so you call us, and we'll answer. Say you're in trouble, and Voltron will come.”

“The empire won't be coming back here,” Lance promised. “And if they do, then Voltron is going to save you. Even if you say no to joining the coalition.”

“It is an appealing offer,” the Puigian leader said, taking the communicator. “Where would the Castle of Lions be for this hosted meeting?”

“That depends,” Lance answered. “Can you fly off-planet yourself or do you need a ride?”

The Puigian leader looked out over the crowd, and nodded. “We have our own methods of travel,” he conceded. “Where and when will this coalition meeting happen?”

“It's in the Zavlin system,” Lance answered, smiling. “And it's on the next quintant, actually.”

* * *

“I'm just saying,” Hunk said as they flew into the Castle several vargas later. “You didn't have to promise Voltron being there. Since, technically, it _won't_ be.”

“I had to say _something_ , alright,” Lance groaned, landing in Blue's hangar. He opened the bay doors, and stepped away from the cockpit. “It's not like we can tell everyone we meet that we're down a Paladin.”

“Yes we can!” Hunk protested, switching over to the internal comms. “All we have to say is, oh yeah, we can't form Voltron because only four lions have pilots. See? Simple. Or we could just _not_ promise them something we don't have right now!”

Lance looked out at Thace, waiting in the main hangar alongside Coran. To the side, the Black Lion lay, drawing Lance's attention. He felt something at the edges of his mind, and Blue purred, the calming sounds of the seashore, gulls cawing in the distance.

Shaking his head, Lance redirected his attention onto Coran, while Thace brusquely moved to talk with Kolivan.

“Ah, Lance!” Coran smiled. “And how was the mission to Puig? Successful, I hope?”

“Very,” Lance replied, glancing back at Hunk, who stared flatly at him. “Although we may need to talk with Allura.”

“Why?” Coran straightened up. “Did something unexpected happen?”

Lance glanced back at the Black Lion, and again he heard the faint sound of seagulls, reassuring and reaffirming.

“Lance promised that the Puigian leader guy would see Voltron,” Hunk loudly declared. “Which, we can't do.”

Wincing, Lance turned to Coran. “Allura should know about that, because I had to say something, and all the Puigians were calling for Voltron. It's not like I can just tell the people that we saved that Voltron isn't out there anymore. Voltron's a great big symbol, and we can't...” Lance groaned. “You don't tell the people who look up to the symbol that it's not there anymore.”

Coran hummed, looking at Lance speculatively. He glanced from Lance to the Black Lion, and back. “Perhaps... ah, a conversation for a different time.”

Lance blinked, tracking Coran's glance, before wincing. He knew what it meant, and still he didn't want to talk about it. But, Lance conceded, just because he didn't want to talk about it, didn't mean that it needed to be said.

“We don't know if I can even pilot Black here,” Lance said, his voice low. “This isn't like that other reality.”

“But you did bond with the Black Lion over there,” Coran replied, gesturing toward the elevator. “It may not be what you wish to talk about, but this is a decision that must be made soon.”

“I know,” Lance groaned, rubbing at his face. He brightened up when the others joined them. “So, Thace, what's the news?”

“There are rumors spreading throughout the empire of a new ruler,” Thace said. “But without an agent present we cannot know for certain who the new figure leading the empire is. It could be one of a dozen commanders. No one beyond the commanders knows about the exact state of Zarkon, or who it is that is leading them.”

“It is worrying, and I have considered redistributing a number of the Blades toward infiltrating and discovering who is intending to be Emperor Pro Tem,” Kolivan growled. “But it took Thace pheebs to get to the high rank he once held.”

“The work was tedious, and I still am grateful that my term there has ended,” Thace commented. “Life within the command ship was horrid. I doubt that any other could manage for as long as I did.”

“And beyond that, we do not have the luxury of pheebs for answers,” Kolivan finished. “Just as you do not have the luxury of avoiding choosing a new Black Paladin.”

“Whoa, hey, hold up.” Hunk stepped up to Kolivan. “We can't just stop and change everything up. We don't even know if Lance _can_ pilot the Black Lion here or not.”

“Then learn it,” Kolivan said, gaze sliding over to Lance. “From what I have witnessed of you, Lance, you possess the qualities of a leader already. I do not see why you would not be able to pilot the Black Lion.”

“You and me both,” Lance mumbled under his breath.

* * *

Lance settled into Blue, walking her out into the main hangar. At Allura's insistence, Hunk and Lance were to move Black into her hangar. In retrospect, it sounded like something that should have happened long ago.

It felt like violating Shiro's memory, or Black's space. It felt almost like Lance was stepping over his own grave, chilling and unnatural.

“Does this feel weird to you?” Hunk rambled. “This feels weird to me,”

“It's not normal,” Lance muttered. Blue bowed her head, slipping beneath Black's head and Lance grunted alongside Blue as they lifted up. Hunk came up beside Lance, Yellow diving underneath Black's body and hefted up. Together, they moved forward, Black a pressing weight that slowed them to a crawl.

Lance didn't like the idea of moving Black, of hiding her away in her hangar. He wondered if this was what the previous Paladins felt, when Black was hidden away. He wondered if this was what the Lions felt, when they were scattered.

Blue crooned, a lonely whalesong, and with it came something sharp, a lone albatross. Freezing, Lance stared up, wide-eyed, at the shadow of Black.

“No,” he whispered.

“What was that?” Hunk asked, popping up on a video screen. “Dude, what are you looking at?”

Lance shook his head, clearing away the sounds of Blue. “Nothing. I just got caught up in my thoughts.”

“That's new,” Hunk remarked, before grunting as Yellow moved forward. “Come on. Let's get this done with. I feel like I'm holding up Black myself, and this is–”

“Exhausting,” Lance breathed. “I know.”

Breathing out, Lance struggled with Blue to move Black, moving closer and closer toward the open hanger door. Lance delved deep, pulling on Blue and lending her his strength. In the back of his mind, and all around him, the sense of the ocean felt crushing and lonely and hurting. This was just as painful for Blue, Lance realized. This was her sister, a piece of herself that was hurting and wouldn't respond. Each of the Lions were one part of a whole, but Black was the heart and soul that held them together, the piece that bound them all together as one. Black was the head, and Blue and Yellow were the support beneath her, the ones who shouldered the weight and kept the others on their feet, kept them moving, kept them fighting.

Blue was hurting with a loss just like Lance was. Shiro was gone, and Black was as good as, without her Paladin there to support her, to be there with her and help her wake.

Lance thought back to the other reality, to his fight with Zarkon. He'd said it as much back then, that piloting a Lion wasn't about control, but respect. If Black sent Shiro away, Lance respected that it was for a reason. If Black wanted someone new to pilot her, then Lance would respect her decision even then.

Even if it meant that Black wanted Lance to be the next Black Paladin.

Blue crooned the lonely whalesong, and Lance winced, sending back reassurances. Until the time came for Black to choose someone new to pilot her, Lance would be there for Blue, and even if it wasn't him, Lance would still be there for Blue.

Finally, finally, Black was laid to rest in her hangar. Lance breathed heavily, feeling like he'd carried the weight himself, and over the comms, Hunk didn't sound any better. They moved out into the main hangar in time to see Keith flying in.

“What are you two doing?” Keith asked, his voice sharp. “Where's Black?”

“Allura had us move her,” Hunk wheezed. “Didn't want the coalition to—oh man, I think I'm sweating out at least a pound of weight—to see.”

“See what? That we're down a Paladin?” Keith sharply asked. He popped up on the comms, looking at them intently. “Why did you move Black? Shiro wouldn't– Shiro–” Keith groaned in frustration. “Look, just... you didn't need to move Black. They're going to find out anyway.”

“That's what I said,” Hunk said, still wheezing.

“Keith...” Lance began, frowning. “Did you run into trouble?”

“What?” Keith scoffed. “No. The mission was easy. I got it done in less than a varga. The Xylaxans are sending their queen to meet with Allura tomorrow.”

“Then where were you?” Lance asked. “Did you contact the Castle?”

“Coran knows where I went,” Keith curly replied. “You don't need to know.”

“I think I do need to know, Keith,” Lance retorted. “We can't go off on our own, not when we're about to have a big–”

“I went back to the Yggis galaxy, alright!” Keith burst out. “I went back, and I've been going back every night. Coran's been using residual energy in the teludav to open wormholes there for me to fly there. It's an entire _galaxy_. It's huge, and the debris from the battle is scattered all over it, and I've been– I've been scanning for Shiro every night.”

“Dude,” Hunk breathed, while Lance's shoulders and face fell. “It's been a month. Even if he found some bit of ship debris to hide in, he still wouldn't have any air or food or water.”

“He's not dead!” Keith spat, then winced. “He's not dead.”

“And he isn't there either,” Lance gently said. He guided Blue into her hangar, “I know you're trying here, but so are we.”

Keith groaned, and when Lance stepped out into the main hangar, heading toward the elevator, Keith was already there, looking like the teenager they all were. Hunk got to Keith first, and swept him up in a tight hug, one that Keith melted into. It reminded Lance, painfully, of the other reality, and he could almost see Pidge popping up to follow along beside them. He half-expected Takashi to be in the elevator with Pidge, there to greet them.

The trio stepped into the elevator, Keith practically dangling from Hunk's arms as he relaxed into the hug.

“Come on,” Hunk said. “I've got some How It's Made and like ten favors left to call in on Pidge. We can watch how corrugated piping is made, it's one of my favorites.”

Keith mumbled in agreement, glancing up at Lance, a faint blush on his face. Lance smiled back, a teasing grin, and mimed zipping his mouth shut as he stepped carefully out of Hunk's view.

The idea of a new leader wasn't one that Keith would like, Lance realized. He was still too hung up on Shiro, still too connected to the concept of Shiro as the Black Paladin to ever consider anyone else taking up the role.

Lance though back to the past month, to each time Keith brought up finding Shiro. He hoped that Keith could accept someone else becoming the leader, taking on the role of Black Paladin.

The faint echoes of the albatross crossed Lance's mind as the elevator doors closed.

* * *

The coalition meeting felt much more like a dinner party to Lance. Half a dozen leaders from various planets, ranging from Puig to Xylax to Mallix, joined together at the table for a shared meal. If that wasn't a dinner party, then Lance didn't know what was.

“Welcome,” Allura began, wearing her full dress, ready to be seated at the head of the table. On one side sat the leaders, on the other side, Lance and Pidge. Keith stood against the wall behind Lance, arms crossed, while Kolivan approached from behind Allura. “I would like to thank you all for coming to this first meeting of the Voltron Coalition.”

“Food?” Hunk asked, an apron over his armor as he leaned in between each of the system leaders, a tray in hand. “I've got pizza pockets, canapes, pigs in a blanket—and some nice salads for anyone that doesn't eat meat, including a nice risotto.”

“Why doesn't he break out these fancy earth foods for us,” Pidge muttered, leaning in close to whisper in Lance's ear.

“Let him be happy,” Lance shushed Pidge, smiling. “He's in his element here.”

“First of all, let me explain that the Voltron Coalition is meant to be a cooperative element between each free system,” Allura said once Hunk was finished handing out the appetizers. “The intent is to have each system in regular contact and trade with one another, such that if one were to require aid, the others would provide such help.”

“Would Voltron not be the one helping?” the Mallixum regent asked, blinking their four eyes around the table.

“Voltron will continue to help across the known universe,” Allura replied. “However, the known universe is too large for Voltron alone to keep the peace or provide the aid required. Five Paladins is too little to solve every problem across the universe.”

“So you intend to leave us to save ourselves?” the lead Puigian asked. “Voltron promised to return should the Galra attack again.”

“And Voltron will,” Allura assured him. “We will not abandon any of your systems if you agree to join, or if you decide not to. Each of your systems have been left with a device to communicate directly to the Castle of Lions. I can assure you that if you were to call for aid, we will come.”

“Then what is the issue here?” the Xylaxan queen pondered. “Why have us care for one another.”

“Because like the Princess said,” Lance chimed in, “the universe is too big for just five Paladins. Say the empire attacks six systems at once. We can send one Lion to each place, but it's not like we'll have a sixth lion to help that system.”

Kolivan stepped forward, pulling up a map of the known universe in miniature, painted in purple. “The Galra empire is the largest unifying force the universe has ever known. Left unstopped, it could run for another ten kilopheebs.” The gathered leaders murmured amongst themselves, watching Kolivan warily. Kolivan pressed a button, and the map changed, entire segments of purple lighting up in blues and greens. “Since Voltron's returns, dozens of systems across several galaxies have entered open rebellion against the empire. Rebel forces that were once scattered are said to be joining together as one. The empire is crumbling without a stable leader to hold it together.”

“Voltron will still help and defend the universe,” Allura promised everyone. “All we ask is that you come together and fight for one another under the banner of Voltron in times where Voltron itself cannot be present.”

“I was promised Voltron,” the Puig leader said, and the other leaders nodded in agreement. “Voltron defeated Zarkon. _He_ is who I am here for.”

“Yes, where is Voltron?” the Xylaxan queen asked, huge eyes looking around. “I see only four Paladins here. The legends say there are five.”

“Can you not form Voltron?” the Mallixum regent murmured, voice cutting through the room. “Is there perhaps a reason why you said all the Paladins would be present, and yet there are only four?”

“Yes, well, that is a complicated story.” Allura's smile became strained, and Lance almost darted in, only for Keith to beat him to the punch.

“We don't have five Paladins!” Keith burst out. “Shiro's gone, and we can't form Voltron. There is no Black Paladin. There's no Voltron without Shiro!”

Keith stormed out, and Lance glanced at Hunk, before looking over to see Pidge moving after Keith.

“You cannot form Voltron?” the Xylaxan queen repeated. “Is this true? Is this not the same Voltron that defeated Zarkon?”

“We're the same Voltron,” Lance defended.

“You won't have to worry about whether or not Voltron will appear again,” Allura declared, shoulders squared and back straight. She looked every bit the diplomatic princess. “Rest assured that when next you hear of Voltron liberating a system from the Galra empire, it will be that Voltron was formed.”

Allura looked at Lance. He nodded, mouth dry, and cracked a grin. “The Princess is right. We've been recovering from that big battle with Zarkon, but it's time for Voltron to make the big comeback.”

“So... there will be Voltron?” the Xylaxan queen asked, looking from Lance to Allura. “What I have seen here does not endear kindness or agreement.”

“Don't worry about Keith,” Lance assured her. “He's just really passionate. Our last Black Paladin was...” Lance trailed off, wincing. “They were close. Like family to each other. But I want you to know that we will have a new Black Paladin in place. Don't worry about whether or not Voltron will appear again. It will. Voltron is more than just a big robot. It's a symbol of peace and freedom.”

“Which is why I ask you to join the coalition,” Allura jumped in, wearing her most disarming smile. “Live and act within the symbol of Voltron. Be a part of Voltron, by helping one another and by helping others. The Voltron Coalition is meant to replace the empire entirely. Each system is independent, yet welcoming to outsiders who do not wish harm. What do you say?”

The leaders looked to one another. The Puigian leader glanced at Kolivan, distrust heavy in his gaze. “I do not enjoy the idea of Voltron allying with Galra.”

“Nor do I,” the Mallixum regent agreed, echoed by the others at the table.

“They're good Galra,” Lance defended, seeing Kolivan growing disgruntled at the distrust. “We're fighting Galra loyal to the empire. That's not going to change. Anyone that wants to fight or hurt others in the name of Zarkon, Voltron's against them, same as the Blade of Marmora. I've fought a _lot_ of battles with the Blade at my side, and I would trust any one of them to protect me any quintant.”

The various leaders murmured, both to themselves and to one another. Lance shared a pointed look with Allura and Kolivan, before the leaders quieted down.

“We accept this Voltron Coalition,” the Mallixum regent said. “Each and every one of us here pledges to protect ourselves and others in the name of Voltron—provided, of course, that Voltron does indeed appear in full in the next battle.”

“And it will,” Allura promised, giving a small bow.

“Now, food?” Hunk asked, nervously stepping forward. He had plates full of what looked like calzones. Lance's mouth watered as Hunk set each one down, and he harshly winced when Allura pointedly cleared her throat and glared at him. Wiping away the drool and mumbling an apology, Lance sat back while the various leaders dug into their meal.

* * *

Lance wandered the hall, looking for Keith and Pidge.

“Lance?” Allura called out, and he turned, getting pulled aside into a small bedroom, unused by anyone. Allura and Coran stood within, a table formed along the wall. Coran looked solemn as he gestured for Lance to sit.

“What's going on?” Lance asked. “Is this about the drool, because I haven't had calzones in like a decapheeb, so it's kind of understandable why I wanted one.”

“It's not that,” Allura waved him off, taking a seat across from him, while Coran stood behind her. “I wished to discuss the matter of the Black Lion with you.”

“The promise we made to them,” Lance sighed, slumping his head in his hands. “About Voltron forming the next time we go out?”

“Exactly,” Allura replied. “I know that you have the qualities to be the Black Paladin, and I also know that you are the most diplomatic of all the Paladins.”

Lance preened, just a little, at the praise. But still it couldn't stop him from wilting at the idea of replacing Shiro.

“You want me to be the Black Paladin.” Lance sighed. “And you want me to help break it to the team.”

“I want your help in convincing the other Paladins to try seeing which of you—which of us—is capable of being the Black Paladin.” Allura looked uncertain, looked like she was remembering something painful.

“Why do you think it's one of us?” Lance asked.

“King Alfor was once a Paladin himself,” Coran quietly answered, stepping forward. “He flew the Red Lion. After Zarkon... well, after Zarkon, Alfor stepped up to lead for a time as the Black Paladin. It wasn't for very long, and it was only until he decided to lock the Black Lion away, but still he made the choice. When the Lions were originally made, everyone believed that the Black Lion was destined to be piloted by King Alfor. Instead, he saw Zarkon as the better leader, the better choice.” Coran looked away, gaze turning glassy as he recalled a time long passed. “King Alfor stepping up as the Black Paladin, for however brief a time it was, was still difficult for him to do. He once confided that it felt like stepping on his old friend's memory. But he still admitted that, however hard it was, he still needed to do it. The universe needed Voltron more than he needed to preserve the memory of his old friend. He couldn't mourn the loss, and instead threw himself into his work with Voltron, and in raising Allura.”

Lance looked up at Coran, at this old Altean mourning the loss of his old friend, the loss of family and home, and stood. Before he knew what was happening, Allura was standing too, and Coran was engulfed in a huge hug, Allura and Lance both wrapped around him.

“It's okay,” Allura said, her voice tight. “Father would– Father would be proud of you. I know he would.”

Coran sniffled, just a little, and Lance felt his own tears well up.

“It's okay,” he said, feeling his chest ache for his home, for his family, for Takashi. “We all miss someone. I think you're doing just fine.”

Coran chuckled, although it sounded wet and a little choked, and spread his arms wide as he hugged Allura and Lance back.

“I should think myself very proud indeed,” Coran quietly said. “To be surrounded by such kind individuals as you.” Coran took a deep breath, patting them on the back, and pulled away. “Now come along, you two. We've some Paladins to talk to.”

Lance wiped away his tears before they could fall, nodding. Beside him, he saw Allura do the same, a small smile on her face.

* * *

“No.”

Lance winced as Allura steeled herself, and moved to sit down beside Hunk. Keith was wedged between Hunk and Pidge, the latter's laptop sitting beside them on the couch, a cable connecting it to the bigger screen in the lounge. How It's Made was paused in the middle of an episode, the backdrop of pencils on a conveyer belt almost distracting from Allura.

“We very much need to have this discussion,” Allura said. “We cannot act as Voltron with only four Lions. One of us needs to move forward as the Black Paladin.”

“How do you even know its one of us?” Pidge asked, glancing at Lance. “Is there something you're not telling us?”

“I told you everything I know,” Lance admitted, throwing his hands up. “But I agree with Allura. We need someone to step up as a leader, at least for now.”

“So... do I still have dibs on the head?” Hunk asked. “Because I did call it. Buuuut Lance did fly Black in that other reality.”

“No one's switching Lions,” Keith declared, arms crossed.

“And can we even do that?” Hunk asked, looking around the room. “Is that even possible? You said the Lion bonding was a mystical thing that can't be forced. I clearly remember that. And calling the head. But mostly that.”

“It's.... it typically isn't,” Allura admitted. “Which is why we will be letting the Black Lion choose which among us will pilot it.”

“Why are we even bothering with one of us?” Keith asked, still glaring at Allura. “We're not leaders.”

“For that matter, how did you know that we were each meant for which Lion?” Pidge asked, squinting up at Allura.

“I am connected with all of the Lions,” Allura explained. “And I recognized each of your qualities almost immediately.”

“So it _wasn't_ because of the color of our clothes?” Hunk asked, staring at Allura dubiously. Lance, Keith, and Pidge, after a moment's thought, all joined together in staring at Allura.

Allura returned Hunk's stare with a flat look. “That doesn't matter.” She steeled herself. “What does matter is that the universe needs Voltron. And I cannot scan the entire universe for another capable of piloting the Black Lion. It is not possible.”

“And there's some history of other Paladins flying Black in the past,” Lance added.

“I'm not being the leader!” Keith burst out, jumping to his feet. “It doesn't matter what Shiro said!”

Keith froze, eyes wide in horror as his words sank in. Lance blinked, leaning forward.

“Uh, dude?” Hunk asked, looking up at Keith.

“What did Shiro say?” Lance asked.

Keith shook his head, moving toward the door. “It doesn't matter, because it's not happening.”

“It _does_ matter,” Pidge countered, peering at Keith curiously. “Shiro wanted you to lead?”

Lance stood, ready to stop Keith, but Pidge's question froze Keith in his tracks.

“He thought I was the best person to fly Black if anything happened to him,” Keith said, his voice cutting through the air like a knife. “I'm not.”

“Hey, Keith,” Lance moved forward, placing a steadying hand on Keith's shoulder. “Look, not that I don't respect Shiro, but I respect the choice of the Black Lion about who's going to fly her next a lot more than I trust Shiro in making that decision for her.”

“So you don't think I'm going to be chosen?” Keith asked, looking back at Lance hopefully.

“I think Allura's got a better shot at piloting Black than you do,” Lance replied, while Hunk nodded matter-of-factly. “But what do I know? I'm not a big magic robot lion.”

Lance thought about Shiro's reasoning, and wondered how much of it was because of Keith piloting Black. Keith seemed so reluctant to lead, and Lance knew from experience that Keith wouldn't be a good leader; he was too headstrong, for one. For another, Keith... nah, Lance decided, headstrong was as good a word as any to describe Keith.

“I'm not going in there first,” Keith declared.

“You can go last,” Lance conceded, patting him on the shoulder.

“I still have dibs on head,” Hunk chimed in, waving an arm in the air.

“Hunk's going first,” Pidge confirmed, closing their laptop. “You heard it. Now are we doing this or not?”

“On the next quintant,” Allura said. “Once the leaders of the various systems have left to return to their people, then we will gather in the Black Lion's hangar. We will take this time to rest. We should all be at our best.”

Lance nodded, watching everyone go off to bed. He followed Keith, and winced when Keith went on to his own door.

“For what it's worth,” Lance offered. “I don't think you'd be a terrible leader. But not now. Maybe in like ten years, when you've chilled out by a lot.”

Keith snorted, the ghost of a smile on his face. “Thanks, I guess.” He paused, halfway in his door. “I still want Shiro back.”

Lance watched Keith disappear into his room, leaving him alone in the hallway.

“I want Shiro back too,” Lance quietly admitted, the silence consuming his words.


	8. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A void must be filled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh wow, this one took a long time to get done. I gotta admit, s4 really threw me for a bit of a loop, and then winter happened, but we're back!

Takashi woke alone. He reached his left arm out, waving it over the cold edge of the bed, searching for a sign of Lance he knew wasn't there.

Groaning, he sat up, sliding out of bed and mechanically going through the motions, preparing for the day ahead. Slipping on his shirt, Takashi paused, looking down at his vest, and at the neatly folded jacket laying beside it. Takashi picked up the jacket, bringing it up and breathing it in. His shoulders slumped at the clean smell he got, face falling in defeat. He'd tried, perhaps too hard, to keep something of Lance's smelling like him.

But now, all Takashi had of Lance left were his clothes, and Takashi's own memories of him. Not even Lance's own smell remained (the floral shampoo that Lance loved, and the bitter tang of Lance's own sweat, which Takashi admitted even he was starting to miss).

Takashi slipped on the jacket, a bittersweet smile curling his lips as he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms tight around himself, the ghost of a hug washing over him. If he tried hard enough, Takashi could almost feel Lance's arms curled over his, Lance's weight pressed against his back, Lance's head resting on his shoulder.

Opening his eyes, Takashi's smile faded as he took in the empty room. Scrubbing away the burn of unshed tears, Takashi cleared his throat, straightened up, and opened his door.

“Hunk?” Takashi stared at Hunk, who was standing outside his door, one hand raised halfway to the access panel.

“Shiro!” Hunk dropped his arm, shot it up in a stiff greeting, and then dropped it back down to his side. “Hey! Hi, Shiro. Fancy seeing you here. In your room. Where you... sleep... and stuff...” Hunk winced. “Sorry, I just... wanted to talk?”

Takashi nodded, not missing how Hunk looked him over, gaze softening as he took in Lance's jacket. Takashi grimaced, “I can take this off. I shouldn't have put it on anyway.”

“No it's fine!” Hunk yelped, frantically waving his hands about. “It's good. Really. I wasn't expecting to see anyone wearing it that isn't Lance and...” Hunk's face fell. “I miss him. And I really want to talk to someone about it, but Pidge is busy looking for their brother, and Keith's got that whole training thing going on with Kolivan and the Blade of Marmora, and I know that I can talk to them about anything, but...”

Takashi nodded, understanding. There were some things that were better suited to talk about with someone who understood the situation better than most. Glancing at his right hand, Takashi's lips thinned.

“But you're worried about what he might be going through,” Takashi finished for him. He winced, gesturing at the bed. “Want to sit down?”

“Yeah.” Hunk wandered in, moving to the wall opposite the bed. “Actually, there's this really cool thing Pidge found a while back. The Castle can make us a table to sit at.”

Takashi stared, mouth gaping, as Hunk tapped on the panel that opened the closet. His jaw dropped as a table and chairs materialized out of the wall.

“Has that always been there?” Takashi asked in disbelief. “The whole time?”

“The whole time,” Hunk confirmed, sitting down. He smiled. “I've been studying it with Pidge to try and reverse engineer it. Something like this would really streamline a lot of Earth's travel and how we approach, well, everything. Like, the amount of space-saving it could mean for Earth starships? We could have extra space for storage, or a lighter weight for faster travel, or–”

Takashi laughed, holding his hands up in defeat. “I get it. This entire castle could revolutionize Earth's technology. I've been thinking about the holo-displays myself. That could work for when we need to remote pilot a USV.”

He was loathe, however, to use it to pilot by. Give Takashi physical consoles and displays any quintant.

“Ohhhh!” Hunk grinned, his eyes shining as he considered the possibilities. “We could combine the hard light materialization with the holo-displays and the drone tech and we could fly out exploration vessels or set up colonies with, like, no risk to engineers. Oh, I could operate and run diagnostics on lunar vessels from anywhere. But then there's the information delay, we still haven't figured out if all this alien tech works with quantum mechanics or operates at speed of light, which means there would be a time delay based on distance...”

Hunk trailed off, fingers sliding along the table in familiar motions—sketching, Takashi realized. Hunk was sketching out an idea. The movements were hurried, quick and far too nervous.

“He's going to be fine,” Takashi said, if only to assure himself as much as Hunk. Hunk started, pulled out of his daydream as he gaped at Takashi. “Lance. He's going to be fine. I know– I know it's hard, thinking about Lance possibly being a prisoner in the empire, but...” Takashi trailed off, glancing at his right hand. “I still don't remember a lot about my time, and I know I wasn't that great when I escaped, but I had all of you helping me. And now we're going to be here for him.” Takashi smiled, reassuring, at Hunk. “Lance is going to be fine. It's only a matter of time before we find him or he finds us.”

Hunk nodded, letting out a deep breath. Tears brimmed at the corner of his eyes, but still he smiled at Takashi. “Thanks, man. This helps.” Hunk wiped away the tears with the heel of his hand as he stood. “Hug?”

Takashi gave Hunk a small smile. “Hug.”

Hugging Hunk felt... comforting. Hunk was large, had a mighty reach and squeezed tightly, and when he hugged it was warm and cuddly and comfortable. Takashi felt he could stay in this hug forever, could forget everything outside the warmth of Hunk.

But this hug wasn't just for himself, wasn't simply for Takashi's comfort. Hunk wanted– Hunk _needed_ this hug too.

Takashi squeezed back just as tightly as he got from Hunk, spreading his arms wide. He gently rubbed all along Hunk's back, a comforting gesture that Hunk needed, from how he slumped into Takashi.

“Thank you,” Hunk murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “Thank you.”

Takashi swallowed his own emotions, letting himself be Hunk's rock. As leg buddies, they were meant to support the team, to shoulder the others and keep everyone on their feet, keep everyone moving forward. They were meant to be one another's support.

Takashi and Hunk were leg buddies, and they would always be leg buddies.

* * *

Labreex was a strange planet, the surface dry and arid, the atmosphere too toxic for anyone to breathe beyond the native Labreexans. Takashi and the others had their masks on, and were currently moving through the small tunnels toward the underground complex.

“Kevak is a fine agent,” Antok had said, suiting up to join them. “She wouldn't call in for extraction unless it was imperative.”

“Labreex itself is the source of an ore the empire mines to power their ion cannons,” Thace had added. “Free the planet and the system and the empire will be crippled. It is already crumbling. Morvok was one of a half-xarbax—eight, stop looking at me like that—commanders with a large number of followers. He ranked high in command. Not as high up as Sendak or Prorok, but he still held a large amount of power within the empire. Whoever killed him either wanted to take control of his power base, or destabilize the empire further. Both are dangerous—chaos is not what we intend. Free Labreex.”

So there they were, crawling through the tunnels of Labreex. Takashi grunted in annoyance as he banged his head on _another_ stalactite.

“How close are we again?” he grumbled, patting at his helmet. He glanced back at Antok, offering a commiserating look to the cramped Blade. Unlike the paladins, Antok was crawling flat on his stomach. Even though the mask covered his features, Takashi got the impression that Antok was giving him the flattest look he could muster. Glancing forward, he winced at the sight of Hunk crawling ahead, squeezing along nicely. “You okay, Hunk?”

“Peachy,” Hunk dryly answered. “Pidge, c'mon. We're not that far away, right?”

“Not really,” Pidge replied. “Just around this next corner should be... aha! Vents! We're here. And you can move up to crouching, Hunk, these are larger than the tunnels”

Takashi saw everyone move into the vents, made sure that they avoided the drop, and came out in a dark room, full of Labreexans—and one Galra, heatedly arguing with each other. They stopped when everyone burst out of the vent, staring on in confusion.

“Hi, we're Voltron!” Hunk greeted, waving cheerfully. “We're here to rescue you!”

The Labreexans looked at one another—or, Takashi thought they did, their eyes huge and completely white. Their whiskers twitched, and Takashi smiled at how adorable the Labreexans were, looking almost like moles.

“Defeat this Galra!” one of them cried, pointing at the masked Galra.

“Do not defeat me!” the Galra countered, a mask covering their face. They stood defensively, pulling out a familiar blade.

“You're Kevak,” Takashi breathed, and Kevak tensed. “We've got– Antok's here. He sent us.”

“Antok is here?” Kevak relaxed, lowering her blade.

“I am,” Antok replied, crawling out of the vent. “It is good to see you again, Kevak.”

“Voltron?” the lead Labreexan asked, pulling ahead of the group of Labreexans. “You are... with these Galra?”

“They're friendlies,” Takashi said, smiling. “And we're really Voltron, don't worry. You're safe now.”

“There are only four of you,” the lead Labreexan noted. “Not five?”

Takashi's smile faltered. “It's just us four. Our leader is... away. On a different mission. But we're here, and we're freeing this system from the empire's control. You're going to be free now.”

The Labreexans twitched, nervously clacking their claws together. Takashi swallowed his groan as he reapplied his smile. This mission was already proving to be taxing, and _of course_ it would be that they had to convince yet another planet that they really were Voltron.

* * *

Time between missions were spent in a variety of ways. Usually, Takashi would settle down with Lance somewhere, the two of them trading stories from Earth, training together, visiting the others and just all-around hanging out.

Now, without Lance there by his side, Takashi was left patrolling the halls to avoid sticking to his lonely room. He'd already crossed paths with Hunk and the space mice in the kitchen, making sourdough bread (and wasn't that a novelty, that they were able to make something like bread, even if Hunk had complained about how it would be a lot closer in texture to a cornbread, with how coarse the Olkari wheat they had was), and had left for the training deck, to see how Keith's training with the Blade was going.

Entering the training deck, Takashi kept close to the wall, outside of the main area, where Keith was facing off against Kolivan.

“He is good,” Kevak remarked, standing to one side with Antok. Thace wasn't present, but with how often Pidge conned him into helping them search for Matt, Takashi wasn't surprised in the least. “But his footwork could stand to be more steady.”

“He is young,” Antok replied, seeing Keith duck beneath a wide sweep only to get caught and flung aside by the collar of his armor. “He still has time to grow.”

“I don't know about that,” Takashi remarked, sidling over to stand near them. He didn't stand too close, not wanting to be reminded of just how tall the Galra were, especially with how Antok towered over even Kolivan. They made Takashi feel small, made him feel like the kid he actually was, and it unsettled him how easily his discomfort came at the idea of appearing so small and helpless to the Galra. “He's already had his growth spurts. By his age, humans typically are done growing in height.” Takashi smiled when Keith straightened up, seeing how Keith's shoulders were broadening with the muscle building up. “He might get a little broader in the shoulders, but I wouldn't expect him to gain two feet in height.”

Kevak made a disapproving hum, frowning thoughtfully. “Do not discount his Galra parentage. He may yet surprise us all.”

Takashi tilted his head, making a noncommittal sound. “I don't doubt that. Keith's always been a genius. Back on Earth, they called me a genius, but compared to Keith...” Takashi snorted. “Keith's the kind of natural-born genius you see once in a lifetime. He'll probably outshine us all before this war is over.”

Kolivan disarmed Keith in a swift move, snatching Keith's small blade out of the air with ease. Keith growled in frustration, leaping at Kolivan. The Blade raised his arm in defense, and everyone stared as Keith clung to him, biting at his arm.

“...he's a cub,” Kevak said in disbelief. “This is cub behavior.”

Takashi shook his head, covering his mouth to muffle his snickering. Keith was unconventional, to be sure, but it somehow always worked in his favor. Even now, Takashi watched as Keith stole back his knife, flipping away and putting distance between himself and Kolivan.

“That is enough,” Kolivan commanded, straightening up. He sheathed his blade, gesturing for Keith to do the same. “You have progressed nicely, but such underhanded tricks will get you nowhere. Only Galra cubs fight like that.” Kolivan sighed, giving Keith a long-suffering stare. “And while you _are_ young, you are not so young to believe that biting your opponent is a legitimate move in battle. All Galra are honorable, especially in battle.”

Takashi snorted, recalling Sendak's invasion of the Castle, where he used Lance as a hostage to get Takashi to stand down. He didn't know what honor there was to be found there, or in kidnapping Takashi and his crew from Kerberos as their entertainment and slave workforce.

Kolivan shot Takashi a sharp look.

“ _Most_ Galra are honorable,” Kolivan amended. “We all follow a code of honor, even those among the Blade of Marmora.”

“Knowledge or death,” Keith murmured, glancing at his blade. Kolivan nodded, satisfied.

“Among the Blade, yes,” Kolivan said, leading Keith to the side, where the others stood. Keith spotted Takashi, and winced in embarrassment as Takashi smugly grinned and mouthed ' _biting_ '. “Knowing ourselves and the kinds of people we are at heart opens ourselves up toward loyalty and trusting one another. It's also a part of how one can activate their blade.”

“I'm working on that,” Keith snapped. “But it's not like I can just magically understand who I am if I don't know where I come from!”

Takashi sighed. “Keith calm down. Remember, patience–”

“Yields focus, I _know_.” Keith groaned. “But do we even have time? Every time we win, there's something else around the corner we didn't know about that makes things worse.”

Takashi winced, conceding Keith's point. “You're right, but that doesn't mean that you can run yourself ragged.”

“I'm not running myself ragged!” Keith protested. “I'm training just as much as I always have.”

“So you always resort to biting?” Takashi dryly asked, staring at Keith suspiciously. “Because I seem to remember hearing that you took on several dozen of the Blade of Marmora and not a word about you biting anyone then.”

“He didn't resort to biting,” Antok added, and Takashi nodded in thanks.

Keith sputtered, before glaring off to the side, his arms crossed.

“I wish Lance was here,” Keith muttered, petulant. “He'd take my side.”

“He wouldn't,” Takashi flatly stated, pushing down the hurt that came with it.

“He would!” Keith protested, switching his glare over at Takashi. “He'd mock me, but he would approve.” Keith scoffed, turning away. “I'm done here. I'm finding Hunk. Unlike _some people_ , he's unconditionally supportive.”

“Unlike some people, he's also your boyfriend,” Takashi retorted, slyly grinning at the way Keith flushed. “With the exception of Pidge, who's your datefriend.”

Keith stared at Takashi before throwing his hands up, exasperated. He turned toward the door, sheathing his knife. “I'm out. Hunk's probably in the kitchen and I should be a better taste-tester than the mice.”

Takashi watched him go, a teasing grin still on his face. “No hard feelings?”

“Go quiznack yourself,” Keith replied, turning back toward Takashi with a matching grin. He chuckled, leaving the room with a wave.

“So this training session is done?” Antok asked, looking at Kolivan expectantly. “I was waiting until Keith was bored to suggest a group session. We should train ourselves to work in groups.”

“You don't usually?” Takashi asked, glancing back at Kolivan. “How did you fight in Ippotaria?”

“We split up,” Kolivan replied. “Our past work has relied in individual work, specifically in infiltration. The process of working in groups, and of coordinating with others, is decidedly new.”

“That's a good thing,” Takashi said. “Now I'll be heading off. Good luck with your group training.”

“Perhaps next time you might join us,” Kolivan offered. “If we are to continue running missions alongside one another, knowing how one another fights can only improve our efficiency and chances of success.”

“I'll consider it,” Takashi said, hesitant at the idea of fighting alongside Galra. Even if he'd already been fighting alongside the Blade, it was almost always from a distance. Takashi knew how he'd reacted from the brief recon done on Ippotaria, and the idea of seeing them in battle close up didn't quite appeal like it should.

Still, a small part of him, a little bit that sounded far too much like Lance, reminded Takashi that in the training room, under a safe and controlled environment, was the best place to learn. It was what Takashi had done with Lance, both of them.

“Next time, for sure,” Takashi added, walking toward the door. “For now, I'll leave you to your training.”

* * *

Takashi wandered into Green's hangar, where Pidge, Thace, and Coran were looking over a map.

“Pidge?” Takashi called out, peering at the map. A side window was up, showing a freeze-frame of Matt's escape video. He focused on the video as he approached, taking in every detail. Knowing that his previous crewmate was alright was a balm to his soul, and eased off some of Takashi's worry. “Did you have any luck identifying the species?”

“Some,” Pidge replied, pulling up several planets across the map. “There's hints of five different species in their clothes, which makes them either fashion pirates–”

“Or the most recent rebellion,” Thace finished. Pidge, Takashi, and Coran stared at Thace, who sighed. “In the ten kilopheebs since Altea's fall, there have been countless rebellions and even insurrections. Those few that hold out long enough, or gain enough momentum, were personally dealt with by Zarkon.” Thace shuddered. “There are video feeds of what he did for each of them still circulating. They are... horrifying. Zarkon dispatched every one of those rebellions and insurrections on his own—no support, and not even arriving upon the central command ship. That you were able to strike such a debilitating blow is... miraculous.”

Takashi shared a shocked look with Pidge. He hadn't thought of it that way. He knew– they all knew, really, that Zarkon was powerful, having witnessed and felt both times he'd taken control of Black, and had seen Keith's own attack on Zarkon, but... to hear that there were other rebellions in the past? Ones that Zarkon personally crushed.

But Voltron wasn't the same. No matter how bad it got, they had taken on the worst that the empire had to offer, they had faced Zarkon, and _won_.

Takashi smiled, and Pidge mirrored it. “Well, we're Voltron,” Takashi proudly said. “Stopping evil empires is our specialty.” He paused. “Even if Zarkon isn't a Sith Lord.”

Pidge snorted, and cackled, and high-fived Takashi. “Coran, _please_ award Shiro some Voltron points.”

“No can do, Pidge,” Coran sadly replied, looking nostalgic as he pat Pidge on the head. “Lance was very exact when we crafted the points system. Earth cultural references don't gain you any points, and I'm not about to start handing them out now.”

“Sith lord...” Thace repeated, squinting suspiciously at them. “You are referencing that... movie. Star Wars.”

Takashi grinned. “You got me there.” He glanced over at the screens, at the masked rebels. “So, any luck finding this rebel alliance?”

“Well, now that we know where they're _from_ , it makes things a bit easier,” Pidge replied, pulling up the map and showing highlighted systems. “I'm going to these places to look up leads and help out fighting the empire.”

Thace reached over, tapping on a second keyboard—one with keys in Galra—and the map turned into a flurry of colors. “I have also included what I recalled of similar tactics, and provided instances of where past prisoner breakouts, both of the same kind and featuring rebels in similar dress, have happened.”

“Color-coded, of course,” Pidge proudly proclaimed. “Because we're not animals.”

“It gives a rough area to search within,” Thace said. “Although I would suggest focusing on making contact with this rebellion. The rebels seen working alongside Voltron would be more than enough reason to bring the full attention of the Known Universe upon us all.”

Takashi hummed, even as he thought of reuniting with Matt. The last time he'd remembered seeing Matt was before the arena, where he'd injured his friend, where he's whispered a promise to Matt, that he should take care of his father. At the time, Takashi had thought that, if either of them were to die, it should be him. Takashi wondered if Matt knew he was still alive, if Matt knew that Takashi had survived that fight.

And he thought about Lance, and how joining up with rebellious factions would increase their chances of crossing paths. He thought about Lance joining the rebellion, helping them where he could, putting off returning to Voltron at the sight of others needing help where he was. He thought of Matt and Lance, and if they were working together to fight to an area where Voltron had been.

And that idea was good in its own right, Takashi realized. A Paladin of Voltron present with the rebellion would bring all kinds of attention, and would raise the spirits of anyone who heard and wished to fight against the empire.

“It would boost morale across the galaxy,” Takashi agreed. “And we'd see a lot more systems rebelling against the empire, knowing that they're not alone.”

It was a major concern for the systems that entered the coalition, that they were going to be expected to provide help for one another where Voltron couldn't. Putting a separate rebellion into the spotlight, an allying Voltron with it, would do wonders in quelling those concerns. The map and video showed a rebellion, one that was thriving on its own, that would only be helped by joining with Voltron, but didn't rely entirely on Voltron itself appearing to do all the work.

“It's a great idea,” Takashi nodded. “Although I'm not sure if Allura will approve breaking off on your own for a mission.”

“I wouldn't bundle those duflaxes just yet,” Coran said, a glint in his eye. “Now, it's getting late enough. You humans need your rest. Come along now, all of you. It's late in the quintant and you've all got a very busy quintant head of you.”

Takashi glanced at Pidge, baffled, and they shrugged in response, closing out the holoscreens.

* * *

Takashi sat down at the table with a groan, looking around at everyone gathered for breakfast. Plates of what looked like scrambled eggs, light blue in color, were scattered around the table. Slav was doling out his plate and Antok's into careful sections while Kolivan and Allura were going over a small map of the universe. Pidge chatted with Keith about performing a tag team maneuver, and they gestured wildly, using their sporks as makeshift bayards to fight imagined enemies. Keith stabbed at the air with his spork, frowning at it.

“Hold on,” Keith said, putting down the spork. Takashi froze as Keith pulled out his bayard, reaching out and grabbing it before Keith could bring out his sword.

“No bayards at the table,” Takashi admonished, glancing pointedly at Coran for support. Coran, having just returned from the kitchen with Hunk and floating trays of what looked like purple hash browns, nodded primly.

“Rightly so, Shiro,” Coran said, setting the trays on the table. “I'm afraid I have to dock you a Voltron point.”

“What?” Keith blinked, looking from Takashi to Coran. “You can't do that. Can he do that?”

“Yeah, Lance isn't here so...” Pidge winced. “Does it even matter that we're keeping track still?”

“Of course it matters!” Hunk burst out, all but slamming his tray on the table. He blinked, eyes widening in realization. “Wow, that was violent. I just meant, we shouldn't be so quick to change things up. If everything's different when Lance comes back, then it's not going to be easy to go back to the way things were before. And... I don't want to get used to life without Lance here.”

Hunk trailed off, looking forlorn. Keith dematerialized his bayard, standing with Pidge. The two moved Hunk into the nearest chair before sliding into place on either side, flanking Hunk and practically sitting in his lap. Takashi smiled at them, taking a seat on the other side of Pidge and pulling up a plate of the blue eggs.

“So about that plan,” Keith began, peering at Pidge. He pulled out his bayard again. “I think it would really work if you–”

“Keith Kogane Shirogane, you better not be thinking about activating that bayard at the table,” Takashi said, digging into the space eggs.

“Wait, you're _actually_ adopted into Shiro's family?” Pidge asked, sharing a look with Hunk before they both zeroed in on Keith. “Since when?”

“Since he was... eleven, I think,” Takashi replied. He shared a smug look with Keith, who glared and drew his inactive bayard over his throat in warning. Takashi politely raised his eyebrows in response. “Kogane's actually a name he made up when he signed the papers.”

Keith bared his teeth in warning, eyes glaring daggers. Across the table, Slav eeped and crawled onto Antok's shoulders. Antok and Thace shared a pointed look, straightening up as they took

“Wait wait wait,” Hunk shook his head, turning his judgmental look over onto Keith. “you made up your last name? What was it before? Why did you make it up? Do you not have a last name?”

“I will murder you in your sleep,” Keith hissed at Takashi.

“No one is killing anyone,” Allura cut in, taking mild interest in the conversation.

“He's made that threat since I first teased him about it,” Takashi replied, unfazed. “Clearly I'm still alive and Keith's full of empty death threats.”

“To you, maybe,” Keith muttered, not letting up in his glare. “But don't you dare tell this. Let me have this little scrap of dignity.”

“Details,” Pidge demanded. “I need details. You can't just drop a knowledge bomb like that and _not_ explain things.”

“Seconded,” Hunk added, slinging an arm around Keith and pulling him into a loose hug. “Tell me? Please?”

Hunk turned the puppy dog eyes on Keith, who melted.

“Fine,” Keith sighed, burying his head into the mighty depths of Hunk's shoulder. “But don't mock me for this.”

“So Keith's eleven,” Takashi began, pulling everyone's attention back onto him. “And he's handed the papers and a pen, and told to sign his final legal name at the bottom. Now, from my perspective we're watching him start to sign, and there he is stalling partway through and glaring at the paper.”

“I started to write my birth name,” Keith mumbled from within Hunk's shoulder. He peered out, face as red as his lion and full of mortification. “And I was young, so I didn't know that I could just cross it out and write the correct name. Pens are permanent, okay! Especially on legal documents. I thought that if I crossed out the K and replaced it with an S that it would mean the adoption wouldn't happen. I panicked!” Keith winced. “So I... made do.”

“When the paper was handed back, there he was with two last names,” Takashi said, smiling fondly. “Keith Kogane Shirogane.”

“I did my best to fix things,” Keith grumbled. “I thought if I could combine what I'd put down of my last name with what fit of Shiro's last name, then it would work. And it _did_.”

“Wow.” Pidge nodded, grinning wide. “So you made up your last name.”

“I made up my last name,” Keith confirmed, returning his head into the crook of Hunk's shoulder.

“He thought it would just be on the one document, but when he puts his name down anywhere, it's always as Kogane because that's what his legal name is.” Takashi shrugged. “He keeps getting this face every time he puts it down, like he ate boiled broccoli. It's funny.”

“It's horrifying,” Keith growled, glaring at Takashi. “It's embarrassing.”

“It's cute,” Hunk declared.

“Definitely cute,” Pidge agreed. They turned toward Keith. “I feel like we've just leveled up in our relationship.”

“It's not like I can drag Shiro down with me,” Keith said, before smirking. “Like talking about how he made me proofread his fanfiction.”

“What! No!” Pidge cackled, while Takashi met Keith's smug look head on.

“Bring it,” Takashi said. “I finished my fics before going off-planet, I have nothing left for you to shame me for.”

“As... fascinating as this all is,” Allura cut in, bringing the holomap up over the table. “It's time I explained what your next missions will be.”

Takashi blinked, turning to look at Allura. “Missions?”

“As in plural?” Hunk groaned. “Doing one is already exhausting enough, now we're running multiple planet saving each quintant?”

“The universe is too vast for all the Paladins to appear at a majority of planets,” Allura said. “Too many systems are requesting Voltron's aid to continue as we are. So now you're running individual missions alongside the Blade of Marmora.”

Takashi felt his good mood drop slightly. He glanced across the table, where Slav was climbing back into his seat. Takashi caught the eye of Antok, who canted his head in confirmation.

“Hunk and Keith will be traveling here in the Castle to secure the Zavlin system,” Allura said. “While Pidge and Shiro will be working alongside the Blade to reclaim Azzon.”

Takashi nodded, putting on a serious face as he listened to Allura and Kolivan debrief them on the mission. He knew that it wasn't going to be easy, knew that this war was never going to be easy, but for this, he had to be brave. Takashi wasn't going to let his problems get in the way of working with the Blade, not again.

Everything was going to be fine.

* * *

Azzon's fifth moon, Zefila, was rocky and small and covered in thick rainclouds that obscured view of the surface.

“Zefila is uninhabited, thankfully, and because of the constant storms few have interest in it,” Kolivan explained as Takashi flew Blue low, guiding Green in. “But it's the third moon we must keep careful eye on. The thick fog that covers it allows the slavers to operate on the surface without view from passing ships, and the mountainous terrain is dangerous for many ships. Most pilots unfamiliar with it tend to avoid flying close.”

“Well, it's a good thing we've got Blue,” Takashi said, grinning proudly as he patted Blue's console. Blue preened at the praise, whalesong and tidal crashing echoing heavily in the back of Takashi's mind. The icon for Blue's sonic cannon appears, and Takashi brings it up, adjusting the setting so it would create a map of the planet. “Just give us a few doboshes and I'll have a map of the place.”

Takashi took a deep breath, letting out a small roar alongside Blue, the sonic cannon bursting to life. Blue's roar turned into a deep thrum, one that echoed deep in Takashi's body and soul. A screen popped up, steadily pulsing with the purring thrum as more and more detail appeared.

“Did you just roar?” Pidge asked, snickering. Takashi blinked, a light flush dusting his cheeks.

“Look, it's fun,” Takashi defended. “And Blue likes it. More importantly, _I_ like it.”

“Hey, not knocking the roaring.” A video of Pidge popped up beside the growing map. They shrugged, grinning. “Sometimes I talk to Green. She likes it when I share my process with her.”

Takashi hummed, looking back over the map. Blue's purring slowed, and stopped, and the map dinged. Takashi smiled, sending the map over to Pidge.

“I've got some good news. It looks like the downed ship isn't far from us. Pidge, can you plot a course for us?”

Together, Green and Blue flew into the fog, low and slow. Blue's eyes glowed through the fog, bright and piercing, illuminating half as far through it as Takashi liked. Instead, he pulled away from Blue's eyes, focusing instead on the map. Mountains that loomed out of the fog were clear as day on Takashi's map, and he smiled, patting the console and wondering if it were possible to wash Blue, or give her a nice waxing.

Blue purred, the giddy chirping of dolphins that left Takashi feeling giddy himself. He kept up the grin, as the crashed ship appeared out of the fog. Two figures stood outside of the ship, the eyes of their masks piercing even from so far away. Takashi sat back while Pidge took point with Kolivan, opening comms with the Blades. This mission was turning out okay, and whatever worries Takashi might have had were pointless. Working with the Blades, working with Galra, was going to be alright.

* * *

Two weeks later, Takashi flew out in the skies high above Puig, dodging laser blasts. Galra fighters chased him and Hunk, while turrets shot at them from down below.

“We're coming up on the drop zone,” Takashi said, pulling up a video of Kolivan and a half dozen Blades waiting in Blue's storage bay. Half a tick later, Takashi flew past the drop zone, curling and bounding along the ground and canyon walls. Blue's tail flicked, firing wildly at the turrets. Takashi wasn't half the sharpshooter that Lance was, but his aim held true enough, taking out three of the half dozen turrets.

“We're past the drop zone,” Hunk replied, Yellow barreling through the other turrets and moving in tandem with Blue. “Everything's coming in hot!”

“Drop us here,” Kolivan said. “We'll make our own way to the village.”

“Stay safe,” Takashi said, pulling Blue low along the ground. “I can't slow down or the fighters will shoot us all down. Hunk, can you distract some of those fighters?”

“Already on it!” Hunk cried, flying out and above, toward the low flying fleet warship. “It's time to clear the air!”

Takashi groaned at Hunk's pun, turning away to open the bay doors. “Alright, Kolivan, you're good to go.”

The video feed cut out, Takashi hearing Kolivan over the comms as the Blades jumped out and into battle. “Go, go, go!”

Blue pulled high up as the Blades engaged the ground forces. Takashi had a trio of fighters trail after him, away from the village. He spun, darting between two blasts and firing back at one of the fighters. Blue leaped forward, grabbing one of the remaining fighters and shaking it hard, flinging it into the last fighter. Off to the side, Takashi spotted Hunk being chased by a pair of fighters, and flew toward his friend.

“Hunk, you've got two on your six,” Takashi called out. “You want me to take them out?”

“Nah, I've got them.” Takashi watched as Yellow stalled in place, the fighters slamming into Yellow's back and exploding. “ _That's_ what you get for trying to tailgate!”

Takashi laughed, firing off Blue's tail laser and taking out another fighter. Far below, Takashi spotted Kolivan and the Blades entering the city, laser blasts raining down from somewhere above. Blue rumbled in his mind, and Takashi pulled to the side, bounding up and along the side of a mountain as a pair of fighters chased after him.

“Is there no end to these guys?” Takashi grumbled, bounding off the edge of the cliff and curving around. A cool chill grew on the back of his scalp as Blue fired off her ice beam. The two fighters were too slow to dodge the attack, breaking apart as they were frozen to the side of the mountain. Hunk flew by, ramming another fighter into the ice and shattering it.

“Shiro!” Kolivan called out. “We're pinned down. Send air support.”

Takashi shared a concerned look with Hunk before flying back down toward the village. He scanned the area, spotting shadows that he suspected were the Blades hunkered to one side of boulders and ruins of walls. There weren't any turrets left, and Takashi couldn't spot any ground troops left, so where–

Blue yelped, alerting Takashi of the massive laser firing down on the area from where it was dug into the curving mountain. Takashi bound along the ground away from the village, drawing fire away from the Blades. Between the Blade of Marmora and the Blue Lion, Takashi preferred the odds of Blue surviving the fire of an ion blast than the highly vulnerable and comparatively fragile Galra.

The ion cannon (because apparently those could exist outside of a fleet warship, why was Takashi even surprised at this point) kept zeroing in on Blue, chasing her and Takashi down the valley and along every edge of the surrounding mountains. Takashi couldn't find a clear angle where he could see the cannon without it firing at Blue.

“Hunk!” Takashi grunted, Blue bounding in circled away from the village, keeping the ion cannon focused on them. “I can't get a clear angle.”

High above, Yellow flew on the far side of the mountain, out of view of the ion cannon. Yellow's claws appeared, and Hunk laughed.

“Looks like I'll have to drill my way through.” Yellow fell into a dive, corkscrewing down and into the mountain. The ion cannon exploded out, debris raining down around Takashi as Hunk gracefully landed. In the distance, Takashi spotted a lone fleet warship entering orbit, the remaining half dozen fighters retreating toward it. A video popped up on Takashi's dashboard, Hunk's concerned face looking over at Takashi. “Do we go after them?”

Takashi shook his head. “No. Besides, it looks like Puig is free. Let's stay here a while, soak up the sights and convince them to join the fight.” He shook his head, a smile beginning to form. “Who knows, they might want to throw us a party.”

* * *

True to Takashi's expectations, the Puigians wanted to throw a celebration in Voltron's honor. It wasn't a party by Takashi's standards, with a woeful lack of dancing or music, but the good cheer was more than contagious enough that Takashi was smiling and laughing with the rest of them.

Blue and Yellow were seated at the edge of the village, particle barriers down. The Puigians were gathering around them, marveling in awe. Several Puigian kids were tentatively crawling all over Blue and Yellow's paws, giggling in delight as they slid off. Blue purred in confused delight at the attention, and Takashi snorted, covering his grin as he scanned the village square for the others.

Hunk, he spotted surrounded by eager Puigians holding trays of food of all sorts—including a crab-like beetle that reared up when Hunk poked it. Crossing his arms, Hunk turned away from the beetle (which, now that Takashi was listening, was hissing distressingly loudly) and grabbed a tray of his own, carefully filling it with various foods that were far less alive and kicking and instead were cooked or never alive to begin with.

“Blue Paladin?” Takashi turned to see a group of young Puigians looking at him tentatively. One of them held out a tablet. “Could you... pose for us? For our mural!” The green-haired Puigian pointed at a nearby wall, where he spotted others hard at work carving a likeness of Voltron and the Lions. “We would be deeply appreciative. Especially as you're... the Champion.”

The title caught Takashi off guard, and he stared, nonplussed. “Uh. The Champion?”

“Yes!” the young Puigian nodded, still smiling. “The Champion of Hope! Now a Paladin of Voltron, but still fighting the Galra. And you are bringing hope everywhere you go. We have heard the stories.”

Another Puigian, sporting a beard and looking far more wrinkled than anyone else, sidled close. They looked from side to side before leaning in. “Is it true? That you took down Emperor Zarkon.”

“We did,” Takashi replied. He nodded toward the outskirts of the square, where he spotted Kolivan and the Blades tentatively approaching the celebration. “And we couldn't have done it without help. Their help.”

“The Galra,” the elder Puigian said, in the same tone one spoke of black licorice.

“The Blade of Marmora has been fighting the empire for decapheebs,” Takashi said, drawing on every bit of patience he'd developed in the media circuit leading up to the launch to Kerberos. “It was their resources that allowed Voltron to launch the attack that took down Zarkon. And Voltron has fought alongside them for several movements. I trust them with my life.”

“Perhaps,” the elder Puigian said dubiously. “Even so, I will spread the word that this... Blade of Marmora is not a part of the empire.”

“That's all I ask,” Takashi said. He smiled as the elder left, turning back to the waiting teenage Puigians. “Of course I'll pose for you. But only if _you_ pose for some pictures with _me_.”

He pulled out Pidge's phone, holding it at arm's length as they all posed for pictures. Takashi then posed, rather heroically in his opinion, for the mural. The entire experience was more than what Takashi expected, saving the pictures so Pidge could later edit them into a slideshow for when Lance returned.

The truth of Lance not being present was still a hurt to everyone's souls, and every quintant that passed where he didn't reappear only made his absence more prominent. Pidge had the idea of documenting the places and people they saved, for when Lance returned. Deep down, Takashi knew that it was to make everyone feel better, but he couldn't deny the results.

Taking pictures of the mural, Takashi blinked in surprise when Kolivan sidled up to him. The Blades had kept to lingering on the sidelines of the village, uncertain about being in the spotlight, but that Blades were now in the village square was... progress. In fact, by Takashi's eyes, Kolivan seemed to _preen_ at seeing the delight of the Puigians at their newly gotten freedom. The good cheer was infectious enough that Kolivan was even smiling.

“This is Voltron,” Kolivan said, marveling at both the mural and the celebration in awe and pride. Both, Takashi knew, were well warranted by Kolivan and the Blades. Everyone had been fighting the empire for so long that the idea of freedom from Zarkon's rule had felt like little more than a dream. But the dream had become reality, was becoming truth. Even Takashi, at times, couldn't quite believe what it was that they were doing, what it was that he was doing.  
“Allura said it was a symbol of hope,” Takashi said, smiling. One of the Puigians had taken to corralling a group of kids around the newly finished mural and was regaling them with grand exploits of Voltron's adventures—some of which Takashi knew, and others that he guessed were from long ago. “Voltron's a lot more than just us five paladins. You're a part of this whole defenders of the universe deal too.”

Kolivan bristled, before smiling at the idea. “Defender of the universe _does_ have quite the weight to it...”

Takashi snorted, lightly jabbing at Kolivan with his elbow. “That's what I said, back when we started. And look where it's gotten all of us.”

The Puigian storyteller gestured grandly at the picture of Voltron, and all the children cheered. The storyteller then swept her arms out at Takashi, and the cheered died off as everyone took notice of Kolivan. Takashi glanced out around the square, where the other Blades were getting clear berths as they made their way around the village.

“They don't like us,” Kolivan muttered, face falling.  
“They're not ungrateful, just...” Takashi winced as he tried to find the right words.

“It's alright, I am... accepting it. For now.” Kolivan tilted his head, looking down at Takashi. “My people have spent kilopheebs subjugating the rest of the known universe. It isn't as though this was not anticipated by any of my predecessors. Our founder, Marmora, was certain that–” Kolivan cut himself off, shaking his head. “What she wanted no longer matters. She is beyond this life now. The Blade of Marmora only followed what she wanted—for the empire to stand for what it was promised to be.”

“And now?” Takashi asked. “You're helping to take down the empire, not rebrand it as something better.”

“Time has changed, and so much we change with it. Without Marmora, her vision can never come to pass.” Kolivan hummed. “You recognize that things cannot continue as they are.”

“Hey, have you guys tried this flatbread stuff?” Hunk approached, holding out a chunk of bread. “I'm gonna cry, they have wheat. It's space wheat and it tastes kinda bitter, but it's wheat. Do you realize what we can make with this stuff? I can make pizza.” Hunk got glassy-eyed, tearing up. “I've missed pizza _so much_.”

“Pizza sounds great, Hunk,” Takashi said, taking a piece of the flatbread and popping it into his mouth. He froze, shuddering at the bitterness. He swallowed harshly, coughing afterward. “Oh. Wow, you weren't kidding about that bitter taste.”

“Yeah, I think I can cut it with some of that green sugar we got from Maxillum?” Hunk pointed at a bowl of stew. “Try this one. It's incredible. I'd almost make it for myself if I didn't know it was made out of beetles.”

Takashi froze in the middle of reaching to dip the flatbread into the stew. He stared, and shivered when a carapace floated up. “No. What else do you have?”

“As I was saying,” Kolivan intervened, looking between Takashi and Hunk pointedly. “This current state of affairs cannot continue. It has been almost two movements since Voltron was last seen.”

“Yeah, but,” Hunk glanced around before lowering his voice, “we don't have Lance with us. No Lance means no Black Paladin, which means no one piloting the Black Lion, which means we only have four lions. And the Voltron ratio is five lions to one Voltron. Four lions is...” Hunk emphatically gestured with his tray of food, “not Voltron. Like how a pizza isn't a pizza without a crust to hold it all together.”

Takashi covered his face, hoping it hid his blush as he imagined Lance getting coated in paladin sauce. That was _not_ an image he needed to indulge in while on the job, quiznack it. Hurriedly, Takashi tried to imagine other, less suggestive situations but everything kept circling back to Lance.

“Lions of Voltron!” Takashi was saved from his own traitorous mind by the elder Puigian, clearly the leader, gathered all the Puigians together and drew their focus onto him. “We must thank you for all you have done for us. You have saved us from the threat of the Galra. The People of Puig are forever in your debt.”

“It's all in a quintant's work for Voltron,” Takashi replied, giving his most disarming grin (he would know, he'd had to practice it in front of a mirror for hours on end back on Earth, and then refined it with Lance and Hunk's help on the Castle). He glanced at Kolivan. “And we couldn't have done it without the Blade of Marmora.”

“...yes.” The Puigian elder gave Kolivan and the gathering Blades a suspicious glare. His expression brightened as he turned attention back to Takashi and Hunk. “Where are the other Lions of Voltron? Will we see Voltron?”

“Voltron!” someone shouted, sparking a chant as the Puigians looked up at Blue and Yellow excitedly.

“Actually, it's just us two. And the Blade of Marmora,” Hunk said, giving Takashi a nervous glance. “We kind of... can't form Voltron right now.”

“We're on this mission ourselves,” Takashi finished for him, hoping to regain some of the crowd's enthusiasm as it died out. “With so many planets and systems rebelling, Voltron's been spread pretty thin.”

“But you are the same Voltron, yes?” the Puigian elder confirmed. “The Voltron that defeated Zarkon?”

“The one and only,” Takashi confirmed. “And Voltron is made up of all five of our Lions, and with just us two here, we can't form it.”

“And you affiliate yourselves with Galra?” the Puigian elder asked, still suspicious. To the side, Kolivan's face fell.

“Like I said, Voltron's been spread pretty thin since we took down Zarkon. Each of the Lions has been sent on our own missions to help planets and systems across the universe. The Blade of Marmora has been fighting the empire too, for a lot longer than Voltron has. Voltron is more than happy to accept their help.” Takashi stepped forward. “We actually wanted to ask if you were interested in joining the coalition we're building. It's full of free systems like yours, and it's meant to be a replacement to the empire. The Castle of Lions is hosting a number of leaders of free systems to see if they're interested in joining.”

“Of course I will attend,” the Puigian elder replied, smiling up at Takashi. “When and where is this meeting?”

“Why are you allied with Galra?” someone asked, and Takashi shared a beleaguered glance with Hunk.

“The Blade of Marmora is a rebel group of Galra,” he began, reciting the speech they had all practiced. “They've been fighting the empire from within for decapheebs. They have more than earned Voltron's trust, and are worthy of your trust, if you'll give it.”

The crowd of Puigians muttered dispassionately, and Takashi swallowed his sigh.

“Blue Paladin?” the Puigian elder gently prodded. “The meeting?”

“It's in two quintants,” Takashi answered. “Over in the Zavlin system. Can you make it there on your own?”

“I will manage,” the elder replied. He glanced back at the Blade once more. “And... I will consider the importance of working with this Blade.” The elder turned away, before glancing back. “Will Voltron be making an appearance at this meeting?”

Takashi hummed noncommittally. “All the Paladins will be present, I can promise you that much. Oh, one more thing.” He gestured for Hunk, who fumbled with the food tray before passing it off to Kolivan to awkwardly hold. “Hunk has a communicator from Princess Allura.”

“It's a direct line to the Castle of Lions,” Hunk explained. “So if the empire comes back, Voltron will come and save you. Even if you decide not to join the coalition.”

The elder took the communicator, holding it like it was a precious treasure. He nodded, and moved off, dispersing the crowd as they began to clean up the village.

“Why did you say that?” Hunk hissed, glancing around wildly. “Voltron won't be forming at the meeting.”

“I didn't say that.” Takashi smiled. “All I said was that all the Paladins would be present. And we will be.”

“All _four_ of us!” Hunk shook his head. “Allura's not going to be happy about this.” He wagged a finger at Takashi. “And _you_. You've spent too much time around Lance.”

Takashi shrugged, perfectly content with that statement.

* * *

Takashi, having won the round of rock-paper-scissors, left Hunk to update Allura on the mission to Puig while he went in search of Pidge. He hadn't found them in Green's hangar, so now he was checking the rooms they frequented in the hopes of spotting either Pidge or Thace.

“Ah! There you are, Shiro.” Coran fell into step alongside Takashi, taking the lead. “On the lookout for Pidge, are you?”

“Yeah. Did they get back from Kythra?” Takashi asked.

“Just over one varga ago,” Coran said, nodding toward the hallway ahead. “I do believe they're in one of the interface rooms. Pidge requested one to connect that quaint little Earth device to the Castle's systems some time ago.”

“And Thace?” Takashi asked, knowing that the Blade more often than not was left within the Castle, helping Pidge and Coran.

“He's running through our Altean language learning program!” Coran puffed up, proud. “Even asked for the safety to turn off, although it's not something I would recommend.”

Takashi thought back to the gladiator bot, and how strong and sturdy Alteans had proven in the time the Paladins had known them, and the idea of a language learning program needing a safety, and...

He shivered, offering Coran a weak smile. “That's... daring.”

“Quite so. But he insisted!” Coran nodded toward a nearby door. “Pidge is right in here. Come along.”

Inside, Pidge was hunched in the lone chair, several screens up before them. One had the video of Matt on repeat, while another was recording the audio, and two more were focusing in on details of the duo that were pulling Matt along. Behind it all, there was a map of the universe, connecting pictures to specific locations.

“Pidge?” Takashi asked. “How's the investigation? Any new leads?”

Pidge groaned, pointing at the zoomed in figure with huge ears. “The good news? I found the desert tribe on Kythra that person's from. The Bad news? No one there recognizes them.”

“Well, quiznack,” Takashi said. He pointed at the other screen, where it focused on the clothes. “And what about this?”

“Ah! Those are skort pantaloons,” Coran chimed in. “Very breathable. Why, I believe I have a pair stashed away myself.”

“I traced those back to Tando,” Pidge groaned from within their arms. They tapped on the map, and the pantaloons were highlighted, a green line connecting them to a planet on the far edge of one galaxy. “Nowhere near Kythra.”

“In the Valurian quadrant.” Coran hummed. “That's quite the search area.”

“So they're either from nowhere, or they're pirates from all over.” Takashi grimaced, thinking about the bulky costumes that Coran had made them wear to the space mall.

“Fashionable pirates,” Coran mused, getting a familiar glint in his eyes. “You don't meet many of those. This reminds me of my bogwaggle cape! It was a marvelous cape, I taught it to sing my theme song every time I entered a room.”

Coran began humming something that sounded suspiciously like hard metal. Takashi shared a worried look with Pidge, and chose to focus on other elements.

“So they're definitely rebels from all over, and they're a lot more organized than we thought.” Pidge looked up at Takashi. “Since those traders we picked up from Azzon mentioned rebels breaking them out, we know there's some connection here.” They grinned. “But since they didn't have a way of contacting the rebels, we're no closer than we were before all this.”

The audio pinged, pulling up a new window, and Pidge perked up.

“What's that?” Takashi asked, prodding Coran out of his heavy metal daydreams.

“I had the computer run an analysis of the sound.” Pidge pulled up the window. “Since we weren't going anywhere with other leads, I figured that maybe we could trace back the bomb. And I was right.”

Takashi stared at the Altean words Pidge was pointed at. “Pidge. You know I can't read any of this.”

“It's nanothermite titanium-boron,” Pidge said, almost bouncing in place. “Something like that, we can trace. And from there, unless these rebels stole it, they bought it. We have a real lead.”

“Find the person selling this, and we'll find a way to the rebels.” Takashi nodded, full of pride.

“And we can find Matt.” Pidge's grin was infectious, and Takashi couldn't help the swell of hope. They were one step closer to finding Matt, and if they managed to broker an alliance with the rebels, then that meant they were one step closer to finding Lance.

* * *

“This feels wrong,” Hunk said, video popping up on Blue's dashboard. “Like, okay, I know that this needs to happen, but it just... feels wrong.”

Takashi wished he could disagree, but it didn't sit right with him either. “I know, but come on. We've got the representatives arriving tomorrow and if Black isn't moved back to her hangar now, then we'll have a lot more questions we already don't have answers to.”

Hunk pouted, but nodded. “Okay. Let's do it.”

“On three,” Takashi said, lowering Blue's head. On the other side of Black, Yellow did the same, vanishing beneath the shadow of Black's wings. “One. Two. Three!”

Blue nudged her snout under Black, and Takashi grunted at the effort of sliding under Black.

“You know, I'm really glad Black isn't the _biggest_ and _largest_ of the Lions, or this would be awful,” Hunk ground out. He grinned, even as a line of sweat trailed down the side of his face. “I mean, I know me and Yellow are the strongest ones here, and Blue and Yellow are the literal legs of Voltron, but this is still hard.”

“We're leg buddies,” Takashi said, feeling sweat gather himself. The strain on Blue transferred over, and Takashi felt like he was holding the weight of the universe on his shoulders. Blue whimpered in sympathy, the faint echo of seagulls spurring Takashi on, beginning the slow move toward Black's hangar.

“And we can't miss leg day,” Hunk finished, chuckling. Together, they hefted Black up and carried her into her hangar. It felt wrong, still, that Black should be so limp and unresponsive. Carrying her reminded Takashi of those frantic moments after Zarkon's defeat, where Lance was silent on the comms and Black floated out in space, eyes dark and dead in the water. It all made Takashi hope that the day where Black's eyes lit up, where the Black Paladin sat within Black's cockpit, was fast approaching.

Carefully, as much as can be, Takashi lowered Black down onto the hangar floor. He let out a breath of relief, slumping back against Blue's seat. Once again he heard the call of seagulls, distant over the soothing surf, and chuckled. He patted Blue's dashboard.

“There, there,” he said, wiping away his sweat. “I'm worried too, Blue. It's going to be alright.”

“You really think so?” Hunk asked, and Takashi started, nearly falling out of his seat. He righted himself, clearing his throat, and smiled at Hunk.

“Yeah, I do.” Takashi looked out at Black, at her dark eyes and how she laid unresponsive, without even her particle barrier raised. “With how fast we're taking down the empire? We'll reunite with Lance in no time.”

“But until then?” Hunk asked. “You heard Kolivan. We can't keep avoiding the whole Voltron issue. It's not like Lance is going to turn up tomorrow and surprise us all, right?”

“He doesn't like surprises,” Takashi agreed. “And he'd be too impatient not to make contact so we know he's safe and he knows we're safe.”

“So we need a Voltron, and the universe needs a Voltron, and nobody can have one if we don't have a Black Paladin.” Hunk shifted, glancing away. “I don't want someone replacing Lance.”

Takashi winced, looking down. “I don't either. But... we're going to need someone to fly Black, at some point. Not permanently, but... until Lance returns.”

“It could be one of us,” Hunk said. “Since there is that whole thing about any Paladin briefly flying Black in emergency situations. Or it could be Allura, since she's already really connected to all the Lions.” Hunk shuddered. “I don't want Allura to lead us. She's mellowed out a lot, but I remember what she was like with training.”

Takashi felt a chill go down his spine, a haunted look crossing his face as he recalled Allura's enthusiasm at training the group. “Yeah, I don't think any of us would survive just yet.”

“What about you?” Hunk asked, and Takashi stiffened. “Alternate Lance did say that you were the leader where he came from.”

Takashi made a noncommittal noise. “I don't know. I asked what alternate me was like as a leader and it doesn't sound like I would be any good.”

“Dude, you don't know that!” Hunk shook his head. “You're really good at keeping us all together, and you've been great at making sure we're all okay. And... Lance trusted you a lot. I think you'd do a good job at being the leader for a while.”

“Maybe,” Takashi said, still thinking of every time the other Lance pulled away shocked, of everything he'd learned about his alternate self's lack of a relationship with Lance. Takashi wasn't Lance, couldn't lead like Lance, didn't lead like Lance, if the tales of the alternate Voltron were any indication. “We'll see how the coalition meeting goes tomorrow. I don't want to bring this up if we don't have to.”

“We're going to have to talk about it,” Hunk said, looking put out. “I'm just trying to say that Kolivan had a point. And our only options are one of us steps up to fly Black, or we search the universe for a new Black Paladin.” Hunk shrugged, not looking happy in the slightest. “I'd prefer it if one of us flew Black. And you've got my vote, Shiro.”

* * *

The coalition meeting was more like some kind of dinner party, with the leaders seated on one side while Takashi, Pidge, and Keith all sat across from them. Allura seated herself at the head of the table, every bit the regal princess. Kolivan stood back behind Allura, politely declining a seat.

“Alright, I've got food!” Hunk came in, carrying trays of food as he and Coran went to either side of the visiting leaders. “We've got some local delicacies for each of you alongside some personal preferences of our own. Pizza rolls, anyone?”

The Puigian elder tentatively raised a hand. “I would like a pizza roll.”

“If we may get down to business,” the Maxillum regent said, looking over the table. “I have thought over this coalition you wish to create, and I am all for it. The freedom to lead my own planet and freely trade with others is very appealing. However, I am concerned. Is Voltron not to make an appearance?”

“Yes, I was told all the Lions of Voltron would be present,” the Puigian elder added. “Where is Voltron?”

“There are five Lions, aren't there?” the Xylaxan queen said, looking over the paladins present. “Yet I count only four Paladins. Where is the fifth?”

“The Black Paladin could not be present,” Allura said, smiling graciously. “It is most unfortunate, but we have only four Paladins currently.”

“So there is no Voltron,” the Maxillum regent noted. “You did not answer her highness's question. Where is the Black Paladin, if not here?”

“He's missing,” Keith grumbled. “Our attack on Zarkon took him out, but it also took out Lance. He's not here.”

“But we're doing out best to find him,” Takashi said. “We've already spared what resources we can toward locating him while still ensuring that the universe is free and safe from the empire.”

“And how can you do that, if there is no Voltron?” the Xylaxan queen asked. “Without Voltron, there is no assurance that this coalition will not fail.”

“And it won't!” Allura insisted. “There is more to this coalition that Voltron itself. As many of you have noted, this coalition will act in Voltron's stead, protecting each other where Voltron is unable to.” Allura looked out over all of them. “The universe is vast, and Voltron itself, even with all five paladins present, can only protect so much of it at once. We are asking you to join the fight against the empire, as well as act to one another's defense and to the defense of others where Voltron is unable to. There are countless other planets and systems in the process of fighting the empire, not all of which we are able to help all at once. And there is little Voltron can do to provide aid or support to these systems newly freed like your own, or still fighting the empire.”

“We're asking you to be Voltron when Voltron itself can't be there,” Takashi said.

“The universe needs Voltron now more than ever.” Kolivan stepped forward, drawing the attention of everyone. He pulled up a map of the universe, almost all of it colored in purple. “The Galra Empire is the largest unifying force the universe has ever seen. Left unchecked, the empire could stand for another ten kilopheebs.”

“Cheery start,” Pidge muttered in Keith's ear, carrying over to Takashi. All across the table, the leaders were murmuring amongst themselves worriedly.

“But Voltron's appearance has changed everything.” The map changed, new colors appearing all across it. “Rebellions have sparked all across the empire, and with every quintant that passes, the empire loses its grip on the universe.”

“This coalition, under Voltron's name, can bring an end to the reign that Zarkon began.” Allura looked out over the table, bringing everyone together. “Together, we _will_ win.”

“I am almost convinced,” the Maxillum regent said. “But I wonder how we can properly trust these Galra.”

“As we have said before, the Blade of Marmora is a rebel group much like everyone present,” Allura explained. “They do not wish for anything more than the dismantling of the empire. If you cannot trust them, then how can you trust Voltron? Voltron and the Blade have fought alongside one another for several movements now. And if you cannot trust Voltron... then trust me. My entire system was destroyed by Zarkon, personally, long ago. For some time, I did not trust any Galra, the hurt of my loss was too great. But I now know Kolivan. I have fought beside him, and I trust my life with him and with the Blade of Marmora.”

“And if you still can't trust the Galra, then I guess you can't trust me,” Keith spoke up. “Because I'm not just a Paladin of Voltron, I'm part Galra. And I want to take down the empire just as much as everyone else.”

“Keith!” Pidge hissed. “We've talked about this! Time and a place to get all high and mighty over your dad bagging a Galra.”

“A Galra as a Paladin of Voltron,” the Puigian elder hummed. “I cannot argue with that. Voltron does not choose one impure of heart to fly a Lion. Very well. I will pledge every able-bodied Puigian to the fight against the Galra Empire.”

“Xylax pledges our forces as well,” the Xylaxan queen said, looking over Keith thoughtfully. “I owe my life and the lives of my brood to the Red Paladin.”

“He had already proven himself in battle against the Galra Empire,” the Maxillum regent replied. “Same with this Blade of Marmora. In the face of such agreement, I cannot refuse. Mallix pledges our aid and forces to this battle. And to the coalition.”

All across the table, the various leaders lent their agreement to join the coalition.

“But,” the Mallixum regent added, looking Allura in the eye, “you must promise that Voltron will have five Lions upon its next battle.”

Takashi's heart sank, knowing what came next.

“Of course,” Takashi said, nodding along as Allura added her own agreement.

* * *

“Are we really doing this?” Pidge asked, looking around the room as everyone settled into the lounge. The meeting had dismissed amicably, and Kolivan had gone to oversee a communication Thace was intercepting. “We're finding a new leader?”

“We're not replacing Lance,” Keith declared. “We can't.”

“And we still aren't,” Takashi promised. He looked over at Allura. “Hunk and I already talked about it. We think it's best that one of us pilots Black, at least until we find Lance.”

Allura hummed, mulling it over. “That makes the most sense. But I admit, I am reluctant to have one of you give up your position.”

“It's better than searching the universe for someone who can fit Black's demands.” Takashi shrugged.

“So we'll all try to fly Black, then?” Pidge asked. “And whoever gets a response is the new leader?”

Keith took a step back, holding up his arms defensively. “Don't look at me. I already flew Black once. I'm not looking to lead.”

“Yeah, I have a question,” Hunk said, holding up a hand. “What about the Lions?”

“What about them?” Keith asked, rolling his eyes. “They'll still be here.”

“Yeah, but whichever one of us won't be flying ours anymore,” Hunk pointed out. “So does Allura just keep on the lookout for someone wearing, like, a primary color—or green—and sees if they can fly our old Lion?”

“Hey, that's right,” Pidge mused, turning toward Allura. “How did you even know which of us could fly what?”

“Pidge, this isn't power rangers,” Takashi chided.

“Could have fooled me,” Pidge muttered, while Hunk responded with a dubious noise and an even more dubious look.

“You have to admit, me, Pidge, and Keith? All wearing the colors of our Lions,” Hunk said. “And you were already flying Blue, so...”

“I am connected to all of the Lions,” Allura said, glaring at all the Paladins. “I recognized each of your quintessences and acted accordingly. I _certainly_ did not choose who pilots which Lion by what you wore.”

“That still doesn't answer our problem,” Hunk said. “Pidge, do the math.”

“Four Paladins to five lions,” Pidge said blankly.

“Thank you Pidge.” Hunk pulled them into his arms, hugging them close. “See? No matter how you cut it, we're still going to be one Paladin short of a full set.”

“Which is why I will take over as Paladin for whoever is chosen as the next Black Paladin,” Allura said. “As well as see if I am capable of being the Black Paladin myself.”

“Wait what?” Keith stared at Allura.

“Uh, Allura, are you sure about that?” Takashi asked. Behind Allura, Coran was staring in shock.

Allura nodded. “Positive. I have stood on the sidelines while you risked your lives for long enough. It is time that I join you in this battle.”

“Allura...” Coran said, looking at her in wistful pride. “Your father would be proud.”

She looked over at him, smiling at his encouraging nod. “Then it's agreed. Upon the next quintant, we will gather in the Black Lion's hangar. One of us will be the new head of Voltron.”

Takashi nodded, and once more heard the cry of seagulls in the back of his mind, louder this time. He froze, recognizing what it was.

“Tomorrow,” he agreed, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. He needed to check, needed to know for sure. Blue would know better than him what the seagulls meant.

Takashi was the Blue Paladin. He couldn't be the one to replace Lance.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALSO! THERE'S SOMETHING NEW! I'VE MADE A DISCORD FOR ALL THE CHATTING AND GUSHING AND THEORIZING PURPOSES! 
> 
> Check it out [HERE](https://discord.gg/chJwctb)


	9. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BLACK PALADIN LANCE RETURNS

Laying in bed, Lance couldn't find sleep, his mind too stuck on the events of the next day.

The idea of being the Black Paladin again, in his own reality, stuck with Lance. Once, Lance had imagined being the leader, flying in Black and giving the orders. Knowing that he'd done it before, even if in another reality, made him feel like he could do it here too. If Black responded to him, then Lance would be the leader.

But he didn't want to be the leader, not like this. Not without Shiro.

Lance knew that Voltron could continue without Shiro, having done it for the past month, but he didn't think– no, Lance didn't _want_ to believe that Voltron could be formed with anyone else but Shiro. In Lance's eyes, Shiro was an integral part of Voltron, the driving force that connected them even more than Allura. The idea of someone else being the leader instead of Shiro, was... almost wrong.

Groaning, Lance rolled over and flopped out of bed and onto his hands and knees in probably the least graceful move to get up he's ever done. Taking off his sleep mask, Lance glanced around his bedroom to confirm there was no one present to see him nearly flatten his face on the floor.

Thinking about Shiro and the shadow of leadership was a bundle of emotions that Lance would rather not get into a spiral. He needed either a distraction, or someone to talk to. Which was how he found himself standing before Hunk's door, sleep mask clenched tightly in hand. Knocking, Lance waited.

“Lance?” Hunk opened the door, blinking blearily and squinting. “Did you need something?”

“I need to talk,” Lance said, gesturing vaguely at Hunk's room. “Can I come in?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, yeah.” Hunk stepped back, making half a gesture toward his bedroom that turned into the stretch of a yawn. “Ugh. Sorry. What are we talking about?”

Lance guided Hunk into sitting on his bed, while Lance kept standing. He glanced over at Hunk, who looked much more awake than a moment ago, and sighed.

“I'm kind of freaking out about tomorrow,” Lance began, pacing. “Like, I might know which of us is the next Black Paladin?”

“Is it you?” Hunk asked, before softly gasping. “Is it me? Am I the head now? I mean I know I called it but knowing for sure is just– that's a lot of responsibility! I can't be a responsible adult here, I'm barely an adult!”

“Hunk!” Lance clapped Hunk on the shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. “Focus. It's not you. It's me.”

“You?” Hunk squeaked, calming down more and more with each passing second. “Are you sure?”

“The other day I heard Black,” Lance replied, sitting down on the bed beside Hunk. “I know what she sounds like to recognize her.”

Lance, if he tried, could recall the faint echoes of the albatross he'd heard.

“Oh.” Hunk glanced away, lip pursed in thought. “But... I called the head?”

“I know you did,” Lance conceded. “And you can still go and test it. We probably should still see if it's anyone else.”

“But if it's you, and we already know it, then why even try?” Hunk asked. At Lance's dry look, he frantically waved his hands about. “Not that we shouldn't! I want to know if I can fly Black anyway.” Under his breath he muttered, “Even though I really want to stay with Yellow.”

Lance snorted. “Don't worry. You'll be fine.”

“Yeah, you too.” Hunk nudged Lance, nearly knocking him over. “This is stuck on your mind, Lance. Like biting into cheesy pizza and having all that dairy goodness burn itself to the top of your mouth.” He glanced at Lance, fixing him with a serious stare. “I'm so glad we got Kaltenecker, Lance. _So glad_.”

“And I love you for it,” Lance replied automatically, before pausing. “Also, Kaltenecker was... free with purchase? Is that the same thing here?”

“What?” Hunk nodded. “Yeah. Oh. Oh yeah, right, you weren't here, technically, for space mall.”

“We're going back at some point.” Lance nodded. “I have to have this experience myself.”

“We can't go back,” Hunk replied. “I think after we fled on Kaltenecker, the mall cop put us on one of those banned lists or something? I don't know, I have tired brain.”

“Getting back on track,” Lance groaned, flopping back onto Hunk's bed. “There's me, hearing Black, and every kind of expects me to fly Black now because I did in the other universe but Hunk. Hunk. I don't know if I can.”

“But... you kind of did?” Hunk scratched his jaw, covering another yawn. “Dude, you already flew Black. How is that reality any different from this one?”

“Maybe because that Black Lion already had a me flying her?” Lance asked, glancing over at Hunk. “And this Black Lion has never had me flying her? It just feels like I already had an in with that Black.” He paused. “Even though I did sucker punch Zarkon and got myself all hurt fighting to bond with her.”

“Yeah, and that was all you.” Hunk flopped down too, nearly sending Lance rolling onto the floor again as he stretched out like a starfish. “You already had a bond with Black, and you've already been the leader of Voltron, so how is this any different? They're the same lion, and you're the same Lance.”

Lance flinched, succeeding in falling out of the bed and onto his back on the floor. It was the same argument Takashi had used, every time Lance brought up his reservations in the other universe. Except now, Lance didn't have the excuse of saying that it wasn't him. He was the one who led Voltron in freeing Olkarion, and the one who led the charge in defending the Taujeerans. Lance was the Paladin who broke Zarkon's bond with the Black Lion, the leader who secured an alliance with the Blade of Marmora. Lance was the one who led the fight against the zombeast, and the one who squared off against Zarkon in the trap that took him down.

What did it matter, if it all happened in a different universe? Takashi kept insisting that everything was the same between them, and now...

Now Lance couldn't disagree.

“I guess you're right,” Lance finally admitted, looking up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, imagining Takashi leaning over the side of the bed, looking down at him with a smile bursting with laughter and love in his eyes. “Yeah, you're absolutely right.”

“You're quiznacking right, I'm right,” Hunk grumbled, and Lance opened his eyes, reality replacing fantasy, showing him a blank ceiling instead of Takashi's face. “Now either get back up here or go back to your own bed.”

“I'll sleep in my own bed this time,” Lance said, clambering to his feet. He looked at Hunk, already halfway back to sleep. “Thanks, buddy. I needed this.”

“You're welcome,” Hunk mumbled. “Now get some sleep.”

“I will,” Lance chuckled, halfway to the door.

* * *

Black's hangar felt comfortably familiar. Lance could really appreciate the soft way the lights glowed the vibrant purple that was Black's own, and the way it felt almost regal, a fitting location for Black to rest.

The sight of Black laying sprawled in the middle tugged at Lance's heart. He wanted to run out and yell for her to stop this, to wake up and get moving, to light up her eyes once again.

Seeing the delegates off had taken half the morning, and Kolivan alone was present out of the Blades. The rest were up on the bridge with Thace and Slav, parsing through coded transmissions. Shortly after the last of the delegates were seen off, Kolivan had nodded to the group and left to join the rest of the Blade.

“Alright now, so we agreed that Hunk goes first, and Keith goes last,” Coran said, looking everyone over in a line. He squinted, a glint in his eye. “Now, for everyone else, I'll think of a number between 1 and ten thousand.” Coran hummed, nodding to himself. “Alright, the order is Hunk, then Pidge, then Allura, Lance after her, and Keith is last.”

“Weren't _we_ supposed to pick numbers?” Pidge whispered, leaning close to Allura. She smiled in response, tilting her head in amusement.

“Does this feel like a job interview to anyone else?” Hunk asked.

“Yep,” Pidge replied.

“Yeah,” Lance said, nodding.

“Yes,” Keith grumbled, smiling just a little.

“This isn't a job interview,” Allura said. “This is more important. Being a Paladin isn't some kind of job. It is a duty that one is chosen for.”

“Quite so, Princess,” Coran said, puffing up. He looked out around the group. “Now, do you understand the order?”

“Okay I have a question,” Hunk said, raising a hand. “What if I don't want to leave Yellow? Do I still get to lead?”

“No.” Coran gave Hunk a flat look. “The Black Paladin flies the Black Lion.”

“But I like Yellow,” Hunk complained, even as he began to walk toward Black. After several steps, he paused. “Uh, how do I get in?”

“Let's stick with the access hatch up top for now,” Coran replied, pointing at the top of his head, and animatedly gesturing for Hunk to continue. “Go along. We'll know if you aren't the next pilot.”

Hunk glanced back at Lance, who nodded encouragingly, and he jogged off, booster rocketing himself up onto Black's head and inside.

“He's going to be fine,” Lance said, looking over at Keith and Allura.

“Okay, you know what, I'm not it,” Hunk called out, hopping out of Black and scampering back to the group. “Next person.”

“Oh, no you don't!” Coran pushed Hunk around, giving him a gentle shove back toward Black. “Go along and really try this time.”

“Can he really do this?” Allura asked, looking around at the group.

“You weren't there at the Weblum,” Keith said, raising an eyebrow as if challenging her. “Hunk can handle himself just fine.”

Allura watched Keith blankly, nodding along. “I wasn't questioning his ability to be a Paladin. The ancients know

“Lance, cover me!” Hunk's voice came through the comms, and every jolted. “Pidge, fly left. Keith, make me a sandwich!”

“Alright!” Coran interrupted, looking disgruntled. “You're not it. Next up!”

“Don't worry, that's just how Hunk is,” Lance said, patting Keith on the shoulder. “Power goes right to his head. Once he had a group project in theoretical engineering and got voted group leader. Two days later he was removed from power because he got like this.”

Keith didn't look all that reassured, giving Lance heavy side-eye.

“I'm not worried,” he flatly said, crossing his arms.

“Of course.” Lance nodded, grinning. In the past, he hadn't thought himself the kind of person who could be friends with Keith, but here he was. Turning toward the approaching Hunk, Lance's grin widened. “Good try, Hunk!”

Hunk winced, sheepishly poking his fingers together. “I overdid it.”

“Maybe a little,” Lance admitted, giving Hunk a quick hug. “Now let's watch Pidge have a try.”

“Back up, boys, it's time for a ten to give it a go,” Pidge announced, confidently walking toward Black. “Allura, I'm sorry that you have to miss out on this, but Green might like you.”

Lance watched Pidge go, then glanced around. Keith was stiff, but he'd quietly sidled closer to Hunk, while Allura stood a little off to the side, closer to Coran. Lance wanted to see how both were doing, but he couldn't visit one without neglecting the other.

“YOU'RE A DIRTY QUIZNACKING LIAR, TAKASHI SHIROGANE!”

Everyone stared as Pidge huffed, stalking back toward the group. Anger radiated off of them in waves, causing everyone to hide behind Coran as Pidge approached.

“Don't worry about whether you can reach the pedals,” Pidge grumbled in their best impression of Shiro. “Go, be great. Like you've ever sat in a chair that made you feel like a hobbit, you, you–”

Pidge let out a strangled scream, miming strangling someone, and everyone kept their eyes on them as Pidge settled back among the group.

“So... that's a no on number five,” Coran said, smiling like a showman. He turned and bowed, arms outstretched to the side. “And now Allura, if you would.”

“Um,” Hunk said, looking from Pidge to Allura to Lance. Lance shook his head helplessly, patting Hunk on the shoulder while Pidge steamed off to the side.

“Let's let them cool off a bit,” Lance said, keeping half an eye on Pidge. He glanced back at Keith, who was now looking at Hunk with a determined glint in his eye. Confused, Lance tilted his head to see more of Keith. His entire body was tense, like he was about to jump, and his arms were wide at his sides. “What's happening here?”

Keith nearly slipped as he jumped in place, and Hunk took notice.

“Dude, were you going to attack me again?” Hunk frowned, and Keith's face flushed. “Why?”

“I'm not– I'm trying to hug you!” Keith protested, looking off-kilter. He was still tense, but in the sense that he was frozen in place. “You looked sad and I just thought that, since you like hugs, you... needed one?”

Keith sounded so lost, that Hunk let out an _aww_ and scooped Keith up into a hug. For a brief moment, Keith struggled, before scrambling to hug Hunk back, wrapping both his arms and legs around Hunk.

Lance snorted, covering his smile and laughter with one hand as he turned his attention back on Black, waiting for her eyes to light up. Out of anyone, Allura had the best chance at flying Black, even more than Lance. He didn't know how Alfor did it, but Allura was still connected to all the lions, still could tap into any one of them. If anyone could step into a lion and fly it, Allura could—she was practically the Black Paladin already, by those standards.

With each passing tick that Black's eyes remained dark, Lance felt his heart sink. Allura, even with her connection, couldn't get Black to respond. When she finally came out, Allura looked heartbroken.

Lance took a step forward, reaching out to comfort her, when she straightened up and gave him a determined stare.

“Well,” she said, her voice barely stronger than a waver, “it appears that I am not chosen to lead after all.”

“Allura,” Lance said, face softening in sympathy. “I–”

“No matter,” she continued, clearing her throat. “Lance, Keith. Whichever one of you two is chosen to lead, I am honored to step in as the next Paladin of your Lion.”

Lance swallowed his words, nodding as he moved toward Black. Soon enough, he was climbing into the cockpit, shining the light from his gauntlet over the dark area. Even there the lights were dark, and the shadow of the seat stretched along the wall.

Tapping off his comms, Lance pulled off his helmet, and took a deep breath.

“I know,” he said, and stopped. He set his helmet down on one of the consoles, looking down at the empty seat, at the bayard still locked into place. Deep down, Lance felt a pull, a nudge to sit and take hold of the bayard. “I know what's going to happen once I sit down. And... I know that I might not be Shiro, but I've already proven myself as a leader with a different Black Lion. Even if she might technically be you?” Lance shook his head. “But... Keith doesn't want it to be him. And I know that Shiro wanted him to lead, but if you're anything like the Black I flew and bonded with, you'll respect that Keith doesn't want to lead. And maybe... maybe you'll respect me when I say that I'm saying all this so that you know where I'm coming from.”

Lance circled the seat, finally sitting down. He avoided reaching for the handles, gaze stuck firmly on the black bayard.

“If it isn't me, then I respect your choice,” Lance said, blinking away tears. “And if I am your next pilot, then... I promise to do my best to continue being a Paladin worthy of flying you.”

He placed one hand on the control, gripping it tightly as he reached out for the bayard.

Black lit up, her consoles coming up and Lance felt the ocean recede in his mind, replaced by the calls of birds and the wind of the open skies. The black bayard came loose, fitting into Lance's grip like it was always meant to be there. Lance set it down, the bayard— _his_ bayard, now—falling to his lap before dematerializing. He gripped the controls, moving with Black as she woke. He felt her stand, and felt her roar in the back of his mind as well as thrumming through his body as she roared into her hangar.

The Black Paladin was back.

Lance still wished it wasn't him.

* * *

Lance breathed, looking out across the room. Blue's hangar felt colder, now that he couldn't feel her anymore. Allura had insisted on confirming that she could fly as the Blue Paladin, now that Lance was chosen as the Black Paladin. That Blue's particle barrier was up despite Lance's presence was yet another sign that he wasn't her pilot anymore. He wasn't Blue's Paladin.

Keith had relaxed a lot, although Lance couldn't tell if it was because of Hunk's hug or because he wasn't the Black Paladin. Now he was nervously tossing his knife in the air, catching and twirling it in the sort of casual gesture that, Lance guessed, came from hours of boredom back at his shack. Although Hunk and Pidge both gave Keith some distance—Pidge in particular had to be pulled up against Hunk's side to keep from sticking themselves to Keith's side and marveling at the knife tricks.

“So,” Lance said, giving Allura his best smile. He hoped that none of his hurt could be seen on his face, and from how Allura didn't look at him in concern, he guessed it was effective. After all, he'd just lost Blue after it felt like he'd only just gotten her back. “Are you ready to try?”

“Do or do not,” Pidge ominously intoned. “There is no try.”

Keith nearly dropped his knife as he covered his laughter. Allura and Coran paused, looking over at Pidge curiously.

“Focus, people,” Lance grumbled, drawing on his experience as the Black Paladin. “This is Allura's moment. We're not ruining it with Star Wars references.”

“Lies,” Pidge hissed. “Quoting Star Wars can only improve a moment.”

“Guys,” Hunk said, giving Pidge a gentle nudge and sending Keith a soft glare. “Not the time.”

He pointedly directed their attention to Lance, and with the way they both sobered up, clearly Lance wasn't hiding his hurt as well as he wanted. Lance tried to smile, and he almost believed it worked. When all else failed, Lance could count on Hunk.

“I...” Allura glanced back at Coran, who gave her a warm smile.

“I understand that the Blue Lion wasn't your father's,” Coran said, “but your mother did fly her once.”

“Mother?” Allura blinked, eyes widening. Lance gaped, turning back and seeing Hunk let go of Pidge, hopping in place as he pointed. “Mother was– oh.”

Coran solemnly nodded. “She was involved, yes. And she was as fine a pilot and Paladin as any.”

“Backstory!” Hunk badly whispered, covering his mouth with one hand. He watched Allura and Coran in awe, an ear-splitting grin on his face. “We're finally getting backstory!”

“Thank you, Coran,” Allura said, her voice brimming with emotion. She nodded, turning toward Blue. “I'm ready.”

Lance stepped back, getting pulled into a hug by Hunk as Allura approached the particle barrier. He wondered if it would come down for him anymore, if Blue would open up to him still. If he flew her now, would she be in his mind at all? Would he be able to hear her?

Allura reached the particle barrier, looking up at Blue. An arm lifted, pausing as Allura stiffened. Lance wanted to say something, but knew that this wasn't his moment, wasn't his place.

The moment passed, Allura's resolve steeled as she placed her hand on the particle barrier. Lance felt a numbness wash over him as Blue's particle barrier dissolved, barely registering the hurt in his heart at seeing Blue open up for someone else.

Allura looked back, prim and proud and every bit the regal princess, and let out a squeal, excitedly bouncing in place. She froze, realizing that everyone was still watching her, and straightened up.

“Right,” she said, her voice carrying the distance. “It appears that I am now the Blue Paladin.”

Lance chuckled, pulling out of Hunk's hug. He walked up to Allura as she walked back toward the group. Blue's bayard materialized in Lance's hand for the last time, and he glanced down at it. It wasn't his anymore, but Lance still felt a selfish desire to hold onto it. With Blue choosing Allura, her bayard was Lance's last connection to Blue.

He held it out.

“I guess this belongs to you now,” he said, blinking away tears. This was still Allura's moment, and he couldn't ruin it with such a silly thing like his own emotions. He would cry it out later, mourn this loss of Blue preferably with someone else nearby—Coran or Hunk, most likely—but not now.

“Lance, I–” Allura tentatively took hold of Blue's bayard, her gaze fixed on it, and smiled. “Thank you. I am proud to stand by your side.” She looked up at Lance, her smile dipping just a bit. “This... is still temporary, you understand. Until we find Shiro.”

“I know!” Lance said, cracking a smile. He felt proud of Allura, and saw his proud grin matched on Coran, off to the side. “But for now we're switching it up. Keeps the empire on its toes, not knowing what to expect. Oh, they think Voltron's down for the count? Well, now we're back, and we've got an Altean princess flying the best lion!” Lance jabbed in the air, making Allura's smile widen and bringing some laughter out of her and Hunk. “The empire won't know what hit them.”

“No, I supposed they won't,” Allura conceded. She blinked, before turning to look up at Hunk questioningly. “Does this make us... leg buddies?”

“Yep!” Hunk proudly said, not hiding his tears at all. He swept both Allura and Lance into a tight hug, spinning all of them in place. “We're all leg buddies. Leg buddies for _life_ , don't you forget it.”

“I never could,” Lance replied, feeling a genuine grin stretching his mouth wide. The burn of unshed tears were gone from Lance's eyes, and he let himself get sucked into the moment. He patted Hunk. “Now come on, you gorgeous hunk of love, either carry us to the training room or put us down. Allura's got a bayard and I think Pidge is already placing bets with Coran on what it is. Which is illegal,” Lance raised his voice, glaring at Pidge. “You're like the minor-ly-est of us all.”

“What?” Pidge all but shrieked as Hunk set Lance and Allura down. “I'm less than a year younger than Hunk! I'm totally able to bet!” Pidge paused, realizing what they'd admitted. “Except I wasn't. Coran was!”

Coran sputtered in shock and betrayal. “I was not! Well, maybe a little. I was quite the skorggle player in my youth.”

“I would like to wait, at least for several vargas,” Allura said, glancing from Lance's armor to her own thoughtfully. “After all, I can hardly begin training as a paladin if I do not look the part.”

“Are you changing colors?” Hunk asked, looking from Lance to Allura curiously.

“You can't!” Keith burst out, before shrinking in on himself. His grip on his knife tightened. “You can't. Black is Shiro's color.”

“I... had my own ideas in place,” Allura replied. “Not to worry.”

“Good,” Keith said, nodding. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Lance replied. “Now can you perk up? Your gloominess is sinking us down. Like a rock. Don't be a rock, Keith.”

“Yeah!” Hunk added, giving Keith a soft glare. “That's my job.”

Keith snorted, his posture loosening. Lance considered that a huge win, thinking of other ways to get Keith to join in on the group and loosen up more. He recalled the way the other Keith was, open and trusting of others and willing to have a little fun. All Lance had to do to get his team closer to that team was... keep being himself. The other Lance had already laid the groundwork, and Lance wished he could have thanked him, could have said more.

He wished the other Lance didn't vanish.

“Well, as... touching as this has been,” Allura said, looking around like she was only just realizing what she'd signed up for by being chosen as a paladin, and was still deciding if he regretted it, “perhaps we should move this along to the bridge?”

“Yeah!” Lance agreed, thinking about bonding activities the team could do. With this change-up, and especially with Allura joining the team, Lance didn't know if they could immediately form Voltron, but he wanted to get a jump-start on bonding with this new team configuration. “Let's see how the Blade are doing with that transmission.”

* * *

Kolivan and the rest of the Blade were all gathered closely on the bridge, muttering amongst themselves. At the sound of the door opening, Kolivan perked up, turning his attention toward the inbound group.

“Have you found a new Black Paladin?” he asked, looking over them. Behind Kolivan, the other Blades tilted their heads, peering over their shoulders to look at everyone. Antok straightened up, turning around completely to stare with earnest. “Or must we begin the arduous task of holding trials to find someone worthy of piloting the beast.”

“Me.” Lance wave a hand. “It's me. New Black Paladin, right here.” He paused, and frowned. “Also, still not liking how you keep referring to the Lions as beasts.”

“They are alive, in their own right,” Kolivan said. “And bestial in appearance. Even if they do form Voltron, it does not mean that those beasts are not dangerous.” Kolivan looked at Lance approvingly. “I did say that you would make a worthy leader.”

“Thanks. I'm just saying, respect the Lion and the Lion respects you.” Lance shrugged. “It's how I managed to bond with Black last time. Well, that and sucker punching Zarkon. I'm really proud of that moment.”

“As are we all,” Coran chimed in, walking over to peer at the console Thace was practically hunched over. “What's this?”

Pidge followed after Coran, looking over the Galran script. “It looks like... a broadcast?”

“From within the empire's central command,” Thace confirmed. He tapped on the console, drawing the decoding video up onto the main screen. “It's troubling that it was sent out on all frequencies, with minimal coding.”

“So we could hack into it really easy?” Hunk asked, brow furrowing.

“So _anyone_ could hack into it,” Pidge said, frowning. They glanced up at Thace, then back at everyone else. “That's really unusual.”

“You think the empire wants everyone to see this?” Lance asked,

“We were discussing the possibility, yes,” Antok confirmed. He shared a pointed look with Kolivan. “Although we could not agree over why.”

“Can they track us?” Hunk asked, looking from Kolivan to Antok. “You shared a look. And not the good kind of look that ends in surprise cake. The bad kind of look. Bad looks mean bad news, and that means...”

“It means something's up with the empire,” Keith finished, practically glaring at the main screen. “It means nothing good.”

“Hunk, cool your jets.” Lance patted Hunk on the shoulder, giving him a reassuring grin. He glanced sharply at Keith. “Let's watch the video and see what it means. If they can't track us back because we watched it.”

“They can't,” Pidge replied, reaching up and tapping on the screen. They frowned at the data, and little Pidge heads appeared on the screen before the data rearranged itself into something that looked slightly less like gibberish to Lance's eyes. “It's a general broadcast, nothing hidden in the code that either of us can find.”

Lance glanced at Allura, who nodded. He pursed his lips, feeling the weight of leadership press upon his shoulders once more. “Then let's give it a watch. Hit play.”

Pidge tapped at the console, and on the screen the video blurred before coming into clarity. It looked like some sort of arena, with a Galra commander on his back, sword broken in half. Standing before the Galra was someone else, with long white hair and Galra purple skin.

Every Blade sucked in a sharp breath, drawing the attention of the rest of the Castle's inhabitants.

“Lotor,” Kolivan hissed, staring at the screen, awestruck.

“Who the cheese is Lotor?” Lance asked, glancing at Allura, who looked just as lost as the rest of the Paladins.

“The exiled prince,” Kolivan explained, not taking his eyes off the screen. “Zarkon's son.”

Coran stiffened, staring up at the video in shock.

“Zarkon has a _son_?” Hunk asked, while everyone gaped at the Blades. “Who– who quiznacked him?” He groaned, shaking his head and slapping his cheeks several times. “Oh, ew. Ew ew ew. I did not need this image in my head. Lance, dude, make it stop. Make me unsee this.”

On screen, Lotor turned to look out at the crowd of gathered Galra, all of them wearing military uniforms. “ _My father build our empire on the bones of his enemies._ ”

Beside Lance, Allura stiffened, while Coran let out of choked cry.

“ _But the time has come to change the old ways and inspire not fear from those we rule, but loyalty. We must not waste our energy fighting to keep our subjects down but rather multiply it by allowing those worthy to rise and join our ranks._ ”

“This isn't good,” Lance felt himself say.

“What does that mean?” Hunk asked, looking around the room wildly, then back up at the screen. Everyone watched, horrified, as Lotor offered the fallen commander a hand, pulling them back to their feet. “Tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means.”

“ _The universe can no longer doubt our strength. Each ally gained only makes us stronger, while those who continued to stand against us..._ ” Lotor turned to look the crowd, the camera, directly in the eye. Even from so far away, Lance could see Lotor's smirk. “ _Will be crushed._ ”

The video blurred, before looping over.

“Quiznack,” Lance breathed. “He's not Zarkon.”

“No,” Kolivan said. “He's changed. He was exiled for his behavior at Marmora's funeral, launching an attack at the memorial site that ultimately failed.”

“Rumors spread about him, even back then,” Thace said, tightly clutching the console. “He would allow those of mixed Galra heritage to join the ranks and advance to commanding officers. Any systems he was in charge of, Lotor didn't invade. He left them to rule themselves.”

“We need to stop him,” Keith said, fire in his eyes. “If we let Lotor lead the empire, then our whole mission will crumble.”

“I know,” Lance said, looking away from the video. “Why doesn't he look all Galra like Zarkon?”

“Lotor is only half Galra,” Kolivan replied, looking far too unsettled for Lance's liking. “No one knows who his mother was.”

“It can't be her,” Coran breathed, drawing the attention of everyone. “She perished alongside Zarkon.”

Antok tilted his head. “You speak of Empress Honerva.”

“Who's Honerva?” Pidge asked, looking around, confused. Keith looked over at Lance, who threw his arms up helplessly.

“And who is Marmora?” Hunk asked. “I thought that was a place, not a real person.”

“Honerva?” Allura looked from Antok to Coran sharply. “But I thought she was Galra?”

“No.” Coran closed his eyes, hunching over. “Honerva was Altean. She was Zarkon's wife.”

“Zarkon was _married_?” Hunk squeaked, looking green. Coran hunched further, lost in memories.

Lance winced, recognizing the pain of bad memories. He stepped forward, hands held up disarmingly. “Alright, let's not crowd Coran. He doesn't have to tell us everything right now.”

“Why shouldn't he?” Keith growled. “We already were kept in the dark about Zarkon being the Black Paladin before, why shouldn't we know all the answers now? The more we know about Lotor, the faster we can stop him. Shiro wouldn't–”

“Keith!” Lance snapped. “Think about your trials. Which is more important, saving the universe, or knowing a piece of backstory that doesn't help our current situation?”

Keith's eyes widened, and he stepped back in shock. Glancing down, Keith pulled out his knife, staring at it thoughtfully. He sighed, closing his eyes tight before snapping them open. “You're right. We need to focus on the bigger picture.”

In Keith's hands, his knife began to glow, transforming into the blade Lance recognized as Keith's own. Everyone stared at it in shock, and Hunk edged closer to Keith.

“That's so much cooler than I imagined it was gonna be,” Hunk whispered. “Please tell me there's actual science involved in this?”

“It's a form of magic,” Kolivan replied, causing Hunk to droop in defeat. “Luxite has unique properties in reaction to those of Galra blood.”

“Your blades are made of luxite?” Coran asked, eyes wide. He hummed, rubbing at his mustache thoughtfully. Already, he looked livelier than before.

“Unbelievable,” Keith grumbled. His blade returned to its knife form, then transformed back into a sword. “All it took was _this_? I needed to be reminded of the bigger picture?”

“Well, you have been pretty hung up on finding Shiro,” Hunk pointed out. Keith glared, and Hunk stepped back, holding his hands up nervously. “It's true! Lance, back me up here.”

“Can't argue with the results, Keith,” Lance sighed, looking over Keith's activated blade. “Now that I think about it, it's just like back when you took the trials.”

Keith froze, looking at Lance wide-eyed. “Oh. Right, you... were there?”

“Black Paladin, remember?” Lance gestured at his face. “I watched you fight. Back then, you activated your knife when you gave up looking for your mom and remembered that being the Red Paladin was more important.”

“Oh.” Keith frowned at his blade, sending it back to it's knife form. He froze, glaring at Kolivan in wide-eyed shock. “Wait. So all this time, all I had to do was remember that I'm the Red Paladin? Are you quiznacking serious?”

“It's more about being vigilant to the greater purpose you serve,” Thace offered.

“Yes, we are quiznacking serious,” Antok said, staring Keith down. “Knowing who you are includes understanding your place in the universe. You were told this.”

“Simba,” Pidge intoned, their voice dropping low. “Remember who you are.”

Keith balked, gaping at Pidge in disbelief while Hunk muffled his laughter.

“Focus, everyone.” Lance looked around the room. He gestured at the video, still looping on the main screen. “We can handle this. We took down Zarkon, now all we need to do is take down Lotor. The empire's already falling apart, all it takes is Voltron, which we can do.”

“Lance is right,” Allura said, stepping up to the dais. “Now that we have five Lions again, Voltron can be formed. All we need do now is respond to a distress signal.”

“Uh, I was talking about the five Lions part.” Lance looked back at Allura warily. “You're not exactly familiar with flying Blue. It might be a quintant or two before we can bond to form Voltron.”

Allura frowned, lowering her hands from the controls. “I may not have flown a Lion before, but it cannot be much different from flying the Castle of Lions.” Her frown deepened as she stepped off the dais, focusing on Lance. “And what time will we need? I am already connected to the Lions, Lance. There's hardly any need to practice with the mild meld devices.”

“You say that now,” Hunk said, as gently as he could. “But out everyone here flying a Lion, who hasn't had one in their mindhole? Oh yeah, you.”

“Hunk!” Lance gaped. “We're easing her into this. Easing. As in, being gentle.”

“Why should we?” Pidge asked, staring at Lance flatly. “Don't you remember any of the training exercises? And I've heard about that Altean language learning program from Thace; it _attacks_ you if you get it wrong!”

“I did request it that way,” Thace pointed out, before Antok placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

“The point,” Lance said, staring down at everyone, “is that Allura is new to flying Blue, just like the rest of us, so we shouldn't go jumping into something big like forming Voltron right away. It's more than enough for all five of us to go out and show the universe that there's five Paladins and five Lions out there fighting. At least for the next couple of quintants. Once Allura's more familiar with flying Blue, and we're all more familiar with fighting alongside Allura, then we go out and Voltron makes a regular appearance fighting the empire. We'll razzle dazzle everyone to keeping up the fight, _and_ beat back the empire.”

Lance nodded, grinning widely. Allura looked uncertain, and Hunk didn't seem all that convinced, but both shared a look before Hunk nodded approvingly.

“Sounds solid,” he said.

“I admit, I am aboard with this plan as well.” Allura looked at Lance askance. “Although I still don't think I need any practice flying the Blue Lion.”

“Great!” Lance clapped his hands. “Then let's break for lunch and get to training. Now that we've got five bayards, I want to see if–”

The alarm blared, cutting Lance off. Coran rushed to the forward console, pulling down the video loop and replacing it with blinking red Altean lettering.

“It's a distress signal!” Coran cried out, he looked back at everyone. “From one of our communication devices.”

Lance froze. They had been lucky enough to have the empire avoid attacking one of the systems they had liberated, but now? With Lotor in charge, and his threat to everyone who opposed the empire?

All bets were off. Both Voltron and the empire were under new leadership, so naturally how they fought would change.

“Where is it from?” Allura asked.

“Puig,” Coran replied, and Lance snapped to attention. He could do this, he had done this. “Opening the incoming visual signal.”

The Puigian elder appeared on the main screen, looking haggard. “Paladins of Voltron, the empire has returned. Please send help.”

The video ended, the alarm cutting off. Lance let out a deep breath, nodding to himself. Training would have to wait.

“Allura, open a wormhole,” he said. “We're going to save Puig.” Lance grinned, looking over everyone. “Voltron's back. Let's show this Lotor that Voltron's back, and we're not giving up.”

* * *

The skies above Puig were clear of any fleet warships. Lance scanned the space around the planet in confusion. Turning to Pidge, he frowned.

“What's your Galra tracker say?” he asked.

“Galra tracker?” Thace repeated, staring at Pidge in confusion. “What is that?”

“It's... not picking up any activity here,” Pidge said, frowning. “Or anywhere near here.”

“Scans aren't reading any activity on the planet's surface,” Coran added. “Everything looks cozier than a sleeping rolmflag.”

“It's like a rabbit, only the size of a horse,” Pidge translated. Keith nodded, and Hunk hummed in understanding.

“Something's wrong,” Lance said, an uneasy feeling settling in his gut.

“Open communications,” Allura ordered. “Puig would not have sent that distress signal if there was not good reason.”

“Ship!” Hunk frantically yelled, drawing everyone's attention to a cruiser, sleek and black and nearly as huge as the Castle, came into view.

“That's not one of the empire's,” Kolivan growled. “Nor is it one of ours.”

“Particle barrier is raised!” Coran pulled up a closer visual on the ship.

“They're hailing us,” Thace said. “Audio only.”

“Attention Paladins of Voltron.” Everyone stiffened, recognizing Lotor's voice. “I am Prince Lotor, Emperor Pro Tem of the Galra empire. Surrender now or you will be destroyed.”

Lance watched as dozens of fighters came out of Lotor's ship, spreading out and flying toward the Castle.

“It's a trap,” Lance hissed. “Everyone, to your lions!” He moved toward Blue's pillar, then stopped. Turning around, Lance moved toward Black's station. “Right. I'm back to here.”

“Good luck out there,” Allura said, looking determined. Lance stared at her, while Pidge, Keith, and Hunk scrambled into their lions.

“You're coming too,” he said. Allura's eyes widened in shock. “You're a paladin now, Allura. This isn't how I wanted you to first fly Blue, but there's no point crying over spilled milk. Go get to Blue. Don't be afraid to open up, Blue knows what she's doing, and remember to let yourself have some fun. Blue likes the tricks, especially doing a corkscrew, so–”

“Go!” Allura shooed him off. “I know what to do, Lance.”

Lance hesitated, and stepped onto Black's platform.

The way down to Black felt familiar in a way that Lance had almost missed. He leaned into the familiarity as he settled into Black's cockpit. She rumbled in his head, a call to war that he felt himself echo as they launched out.

Lance drew Black's jawblade, feeling as much as seeing the area around them swarming with fighters. Together, they sliced through a dozen of the fighters in one fell swoop, before dismissing the jawblade in favor of the tail blaster and Black's claws.

“Let's do this!” Lance crowed, cutting into the attack fighters. “Bet they didn't see us coming, did they, Black?”

“Lance!” Hunk and Pidge cheered, and Lance saw how Green, Yellow, and even Red perked up at the sight of Black in battle. Together, they ripped into the fleet, while Lance kept half an eye on Lotor's ship.

“I'm here!” Allura called out, Blue blasting into the fray. Lance dodged a stray shot, and winced when Blue crashed into three fighters. Blue immediately grabbed a fourth fighter in her jaw, slamming it into the three fighters and causing all of them to explode. “And I must say, this is very exciting! The Blue Lion is much more agile than I expected.”

Lance laughed. “That's Blue for you! She's great!” Black rumbled in his mind, and Lance quickly amended. “Not quite as awesome as Black, but still. She's great.” Grinning, Lance tightened his grip on Black's controls. “Now, let's keep Lotor's attention on us and away from Puig.”

“Already on it!” A flash of red, and Lance spotted Red flying through the swarm. His eyes widened as Keith fired Red's lava blast into the swarming fighters, destroying over a dozen. Red's tail flicked proudly, before Red dived forward, speeding dangerously close to Lotor's ship. Red's claws carved into the hull of Lotor's ship, and Lance could feel the faint echoes of Red's roaring fire through Black. Keith pulled away from his attack, returning into the fray. Keith's face appeared on a side screen, smirking. “Now he'll _have_ to focus everything on us.”

“You didn't attack his ship,” Pidge grumbled. “All you did was make him angry.”

The fighters began pulling back, returning to Lotor's ship. Everyone stared in confusion as Lotor pulled a full retreat.

“Or not,” Pidge amended, confused.

“It's alright,” Keith said, still smirking. “I planted a tracker on his ship.”

“You what?” Lance gaped. “Keith, what were you thinking?”

“What if he finds it?” Hunk asked, a video of his worried face popping up on a side screen. “He's gonna find it.”

“He won't find it.” Keith sounded far too assured for Lance's liking. “It's really small. About the size of our bayards.”

“Huh.” Pidge hummed. “He'd have to have his scanners cross-checked and high intensity to catch something that small. How'd you get a tracker, anyway?”

“The lions have that function,” Keith replied. “I found it a while back. We'll go after him once we're done here.”

“Back on mission,” Lance ordered. “I'm not reading anything else here. Coran?”

“That's a negative on the Castle's scanners too, Lance,” Coran answered. “All enemy fighters vanished with Lotor's ship.”

“Then let's head down to the surface, make sure the Puigians are alright.” Lance flew Black down, aiming for the main village. “It's past time all five Lions made an appearance.”

* * *

Down on the surface, Lance and the other Paladins were met with several terrified Puigians.

“Paladins!” one cried out, before stopping and staring in awe. “All five Lions...”

“Hey!” Lance waved. The village didn't look any more destroyed than before, and Lance was relieved to see that there were no new sentries laying destroyed on the streets. “Are you okay?”

“We are fine,” a Puigian said, moving forward. She looked older than the rest, almost as old as the elder who had come to the coalition meeting. “But our elder, Razha, he is not well.”

“Do you know what happened?” Allura asked. “Perhaps we could help.”

“He is not injured,” the lead Puigian said, shaking her head. “We found him passed out in the central shrine. He has since awoken, although he claims not to remember what transpired since the Galra's return. He is resting, now.”

“And the rest of your village?” Lance asked, looking around.

“W are all well, thank the ancients,” the Puigian replied. “The invading force only sought to contain us. There were no injuries, beyond what happened to Razha.”

Lance frowned, uncertain. He shared a worried look with Allura, before offering his most disarming grin. “Well, you can rest easy now. We've chased Lotor off and Puig is back to being free.”

“We hope this means you haven't rethought joining the coalition,” Allura said, smiling hesitantly.

“Of course not,” the Puigian said, looking firm. “This has only furthered our resolve to fight against the Galra. Puig thanks Voltron for this aid.”

“You're welcome,” Keith said. “And we're going to make sure that this doesn't happen again.”

“Thank you, again, kind Paladins,” the Puigian said, smiling.

Lance and Allura accepted the thanks, and led the return flight to the Castle. Allura had gone off to retrieve her armor while Lance led the others on ahead. Once they were back on the bridge, Keith immediately went to his seat.

“Now that we made sure Puig's safe, let's go after Lotor.” Keith pulled up the map on the main screen, Red's tracker blinking steadily. It showed Lotor's ship several systems away and holding steady. “We know where he is now.”

“Yeah, for now.” Lance grimaced, his mouth twisting like he'd eaten something sour. “I don't like the way Lotor played things here. There wasn't an invading force on the surface, and he pulled back way too fast.”

“Yeah, it felt like a trap, but there wasn't really any sort of trap happening?” Hunk shrugged, looking lost. “What even happened there?”

“It is unsure,” Kolivan said, frowning. “This was unlike the Lotor our intelligence said he was. He wasn't impulsive, nor was he reckless. This was intelligent, and calculating.”

“We will have to go back underground again,” Antok suggested. “A number of infiltration missions to discover where he has been all these pheebs.”

“The Blade is spread thin enough,” Kolivan said. “This may be the last we will work alongside Voltron for some time.”

“He played it smart,” Lance said, frowning as he stood over Black's seat. “It felt like he wasn't even interested in destroying us. There wasn't a single ion cannon fired at us.”

“Thinking back, it felt like he might have been testing us?” Pidge looked over the map Keith had pulled up. “Do you think seeing all five Lions surprised him?”

“It's been long enough he probably wanted to see for himself what we were like.” Lance shrugged. “It's not like he couldn't tell that from seeing what we did to Zarkon's ship.”

“Still, we cannot underestimate Lotor,” Allura said stepping onto the bridge. She'd changed, and Lance stared at the pink coloration to her paladin armor. “This attack proves that he is not like Zarkon.”

“Pink, huh?” Lance raised his eyebrows speculatively. “Not what I would have guessed.”

“It is the color honoring fallen warriors,” Coran solemnly noted. He bowed his head. “It is a bold choice, Princess.”

“To honor my father and the rest of Altea,” Allura said, standing proud as he put on her helmet. “And to honor those who have fallen in battle against Zarkon in the many pheebs since Altea's destruction.”

Everyone quieted at that, and Lance smiled. He approached Allura, clapping her on the back.

“Welcome to the team.” He smiled. “If I had to lose Blue to anyone, I'm glad it was you.”

“Are we going after Lotor or not?” Keith growled, jabbing at the map. “We know where he is. And he won't be expecting an attack so soon. If we strike now, then we can end this.”

“We're holding,” Lance said, looking up at the map. “This still doesn't feel right.”

“No!” Keith growled, marching toward Red's pillar. “I'm done waiting. We take out Lotor now, then the rest of the empire crumbles with him.”

“Keith wait!” Lance called out, but it was too late. A moment later, Red flew out, and Lance growled in frustration. He looked around the room, then back out. “Back to your Lions, people. Coran, chase after Keith.”

This was not how Lance expected his first quintant as Black Paladin to his own team would go. The worst part, though, was that the quintant was far from over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gave that Puigian elder a name because... he was long overdue a name. 
> 
> Lotor's finally appeared! I had the idea of him broadcasting his arena speech for a while, and I'm feeling glad at how it turned out. 
> 
> This chapter also lays down some groundwork, so there's gonna be a bit of fun as it's explored and elements begin to play out. This is a real turning point for the Blue Verse for everyone!


	10. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takashi didn't want it. Not like this. Not at the cost of losing Lance, and Blue.

Takashi stood outside Blue's hangar, nervously shuffling his feet. He knew what lay beyond, but he couldn't bring himself to move forward. If he did, then he would know for sure.

The Lion that Takashi heard, the one that he kept hearing, he needed to know if it was Black. Because if it was, then it meant... so many things, all of them summed up in one simple fact.

Takashi was the next Black Paladin.

He didn't want to enter Blue's hangar, for fear that he would see her closed off. Even if she wasn't, Takashi could also imagine how much more painful it would be, to sit in Blue's cockpit, to be surrounded by familiarity, only to have her silent to his touch, to his mind.

Takashi was open, and trusting, and all the qualities that made a good Blue Paladin, but in the face of losing Blue, he didn't want to know for sure.

But the cruelty of reality was that, even when he didn't want to know, he still needed to know. Bravery was trusting in the face of an unfavorable outcome, was trusting that everything would be alright.

He barely felt moving forward, only vaguely recognizing that it was himself. Entering Blue's hangar felt almost like going home, in the same way his and Lance's room felt so much like safety and home and comfort.

Blue's hangar was dim, the only lights coming from the blue lighting, bathing everything in a dull light that softened even the darkest shadows. Takashi stopped dead, mouth gone dry at the light coming off of the particle barrier around Blue.

“No.” The word came out breathless, Takashi breaking out into a run toward Blue, stumbling down halfway. He glanced up at Blue, heartbroken. “Please.”

Clambering back onto his feet, Takashi ran the last distance toward Blue, stopping just short of the particle barrier. He felt like he had all those months ago, standing before her in the dark cave, the only illumination coming off of Blue. He felt small, so much smaller than he'd ever felt before.

Tentatively, hesitantly, Takashi raised his hand. He held it out in the air, inches away from the particle barrier. It could be anything, like some kind of sleep mode, that kept the particle barrier up with him so close. Logically, he knew that the Lions used the barriers as shields when the paladins were away, but usually the barrier went down when their pilot was near. That Blue kept hers up, even with Takashi so close...

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. Faith and trust, above all else.

The particle barrier felt electric cold, even to his prosthetic. The feel of it sent slight shivers dancing along Takashi's spine. Brow furrowing, Takashi placed his other hand on the particle barrier, feeling how cold it was. Cold, and unyielding.

Takashi's eyes snapped open, wide and hurt. He looked up at Blue, eyes beginning to burn from unshed tears.

“Please,” he whispered, slumping forward. His forehead hit the particle barrier, thumping against it and making it buzz and hum faintly. “Please, no.”

Blue sat within her particle barrier, closed off from Takashi. The space where she usually would be found in the back of his mind quieter than death, her absence gaping and threatening to pull Takashi into freefall.

Takashi shook, dizzy and trembling with emotion, falling to his knees. His tears fell with him, as he cried, finally cried, mourning all that he'd lost.

He was no longer the Blue Paladin, no longer the right leg of Voltron. He was Takashi Shirogane, the man who'd lost his love, and who had now lost his own place on his team.

In the echoes of his mind, an albatross cried out, welcoming Takashi and urging him to take flight.

He was now the Black Paladin.

And he didn't want to be it. Not like this. Not without Lance. Not by losing Blue like he had.

* * *

It took Takashi far too long to compose himself enough to leave Blue's hangar. He considered wandering the Castle, finding someone to talk to, bu there was no point—Takashi already knew who to talk to.

Which was how he found himself outside of Keith's room, working up the will to knock. Out of everyone's rooms, Takashi had already tried Pidge and Hunk's rooms for the trio (and was ready to peek into Lance's old room, just in case), which left Keith's room.

Breathing, Takashi steeled himself. He needed to tell someone, and who better than his family out here in space.

“Who else would I tell,” Takashi muttered, rolling his eyes. He knocked. He froze, hand halfway down, when Hunk opened the door without a shirt on, clad in only his pajama pants.

“Oh. Hey Shiro.” Hunk glanced down at his chest, and grinned sheepishly. “Keith kinda stole my shirt to wear.”

“Because Pidge stole mine!” Keith called out, peering over at the door. Hunk's pajama shirt

“Don't blame me for losing my own shirt.” Pidge walked out of the bathroom, aggressively pointing their toothbrush at Keith. Takashi grinned at the sight of Pidge wearing Keith's pajama shirt, the red bright compared to their green pants. “I swear I put it where it always goes.”

“You toss it onto the bed!” Keith stared at Pidge, deadpan. “Every time.”

“Which is where it always goes,” Pidge replied, sticking their toothbush back to continue brushing. “ 's'not my fault the bed's all clean.”

“So Shiro, what did you need?” Hunk asked, bringing everyone's attention back onto Takashi. Hunk's brow furrowed when Takashi tried to smile, only for it to break, tears welling up once more. “Oh. Oh dude. Come on. Come into my arms. Let it out, man.”

Takashi sank into Hunk, feeling Keith smush himself against his side. He chuckled wetly when he felt Pidge slam into his other side, wiping toothpaste all over his shirt, their toothbrush digging into his ribs.

“Is this about looking for a new Black Paladin?” Keith tentatively asked, looking up at Takashi and then at Hunk. “You know we're not replacing Lance. This is only a temporary thing.”

Takashi swallowed the lump in his throat, pulling back enough to smile. “I know. It's not– I understand.”

“Is this about missing Lance?” Pidge asked. “Because we're all in for a good cry session. I'm surprised it took you this long, but we're open for sleepovers and extra pillows to cry into.”

“Thanks.” Takashi felt better already, surrounded by family. “I just– I went to see Blue.”

Pidge blinked, baffled, and shared a look with Keith. He shrugged, and they grunted. “Maybe we should do this on the bed?”

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded, looking Takashi over. He guided Takashi onto the bed, where he sat with his legs crossed. “Definitely bed confessional material. You've got crying eyes. Here, have a Pidge.”

“What? Hey!” Pidge protested, as Hunk picked them up and slotted them onto Takashi's lap. Takashi snorted, patting Pidge on the head.

“It's alright. You can sit next to me. That way we're both criss-cross applesauce.” Takashi set Pidge beside him, where they glared at him for having the audacity to carry them like they were a stuffed animal. He smiled, before his mouth twisted in disgust at the toothpaste-riddled grin they gave in return. “Go finish brushing first.”

“Yeah, Pidge.” Keith gave Pidge a shove off the bed. “Take that mouth of yours and wash it out.”

Pidge pointed their toothbrush threateningly at Keith. “I have a special set of skills, and I am not afraid to use them.”

“No dirtying up the bed,” Hunk said, giving Pidge a gentle nudge toward the bathroom. “We agreed after that fiasco with the oil in my bed.”

Pidge shuddered, while Keith grimaced. Hunk nodded when Pidge trudged into the bathroom, speedily rinsing out their mouth. All too soon, they were back out and sitting on the bed.  
“Okay, let's get this on.” Pidge looked at Takashi intently. “What brings you to this bed on this fine night?”

Takashi looked over everyone, at how they stared back at him in concern and worry and love. He smiled, even though it couldn't quite reach his eyes. “The last couple of days I've been hearing– something. In my mind!” he hurriedly added, when Hunk's eyes went wide. “I've been hearing something in my mind, and I thought it might be Blue but... it's not.”

“Are you sure?” Pidge asked, squinting at Takashi suspiciously. “Do I need to check your arm again? Should we get Allura?”

No.” Takashi shook his head. “It's not that. It's not, not exactly bad. Earlier I realized what it was, so I... went down to Blue, just now.” He glanced down. “I was right.”

“So?” Keith leaned forward impatiently, flopping his arms and head on Pidge. They yelped, glaring up at him but making no move to shove him off. “What was it?”

Takashi chuckled, although it held no humor and felt as dry as a soggy cracker. “I've been hearing Black.”

“Wait.” Hunk held up his hands, staring Takashi down with an unreadable expression. “But you went down to Blue.”

“Her particle barrier was up,” Takashi explained, swallowing back the lump in his throat. “She's been quiet all day. I couldn't hear her, so I wanted to know. I _needed_ to know. So I went down to her hangar, and her particle barrier is up, and it,” he tried to grin, but it wouldn't come, “it stayed up. I'm not the Blue Paladin anymore.”

“You,” Keith floundered for words, looking from Takashi to Hunk helplessly. “Did you try knocking?”

“She wouldn't budge.” Takashi felt his eyes burn again, and shrugged, blinking away the tears. He had already cried enough. “And I can't hear her anymore. She's not– _there_ anymore.”

“Oh.” Hunk's lip wobbled, and he pulled Takashi into a hug. “Oh, buddy. Don't cry, we're not going to cry.” Hunk's voice cracked. “It's too late for me, but you're not going to cry.”

Pidge and Keith joined in on the hug, comforting Takashi as much as they were comforting Hunk. The idea of losing one's lion, much less the reality of it, was something painful they couldn't understand, not completely. Takashi had felt it, or not felt it, and he still didn't fully understand. There was too much for him to not understand, in losing Blue, and too much in gaining Black.

“Blue usually sounds like the ocean,” Takashi quietly admitted. “It's like there's this huge void in the back of my mind where she used to be.”

“Not Black?” Keith asked. “You're sure?”

“I've been hearing birds.” Takashi closed his eyes. “Seagulls and... something else. An albatross?”

“Sounds right,” Hunk said, squeezing everyone tight. “Guardian Spirit of the Sky. It figures there would be birds involved.”

“Hunk,” Takashi said, opening his eyes and heartily hugging Hunk as tightly as he could.

“It's alright.” Hunk pulled back, wiping away his tears. “I'm alright. I'm happy. If anyone should fly Black, I'm glad it's you, Shiro.” Hunk smiled, big and full of fondness. “Lance would be proud.”

Takashi's eyes burned with the threat of tears once more. “He would. He'll be so surprised to see me when we find him, though.”

“I can imagine,” Takashi said, smiling fondly. He could almost see it, Lance gaping at him, then grinning from ear to ear. The two of them locking eyes from across the room, then running toward each other. “I'm going to kiss him silly when we do.”

“Oh, that's a given,” Pidge said, while Hunk nodded. Keith balked, but he couldn't stop the smile on his face. Takashi laughed, pulling Keith close and ruffling his hair. “You two have been dancing around the first kiss for weeks. It's ridiculous.”

“Don't make out in front of us,” Keith said, trying and failing to push Takashi away. “Watching you two be romantic feels like I'm watching my parents. It's fond, and cute, but disgusting and I should never have to see it.”

Takashi laughed harder, releasing Keith and falling back onto the bed. “I make no promises.”

“Close enough,” Keith muttered, leaning away.

“What are we doing about tomorrow?” Pidge asked, pulling Keith down onto the bed with them. “Now that we don't exactly need to have that mysterious search.”

“We'll tell Allura,” Takashi said, feeling tired now that he was surrounded by friends and family. He yawned. “Tomorrow.”

“During breakfast,” Hunk agreed, tucking everyone into bed before joining them. “I'll make waffles.”

Takashi hummed, falling asleep surrounded by family.

* * *

Squinting at his waffles, Takashi tried to figure out how they worked. They were very crispy on the outside, but once he cut into them with his spork, they were gooey and smelled like berries.

“This are like blueberries, are they?” Takashi asked. “Because I'm allergic.”

“They're safe to eat,” Hunk replied, setting a huge tray of waffles on the table before settling down himself. “Everything I make is safe for everyone to eat.”

“That is true,” Slav added, carefully doling out waffles for himself while Antok snuck some off his plate and ate them whole. Slav softly glared at Antok, before adding another two waffles to his plate. He shuddered. “Except for that one reality.”

“Wait, there's a reality where I'm not a gourmand?” Hunk looked put out. “That's a really sad reality.”

“Indeed.” Slav paused, squinting at the waffles. “These were not made with Zavaberries, were they?”

“I don't think so?” Hunk glanced at Coran, who looked affronted. “No. No they are not.”

“Excellent.” Slav glanced at Takashi. “Zavaberries cause an intense immunological response in Shiro in 89.584 percent of all realities.”

“So, they're like blueberries.” Takashi took a bite of his waffle, humming in delight. “Good to know.”

“Although it isn't what kills you in 83.973 percent of all realities,” Slav casually mentioned, giving Takashi a heavy and suspicious stare. “But, this is not a reality where you die, which is a rarity.”

“...I die in a lot of realities?” Takashi asked, swallowing heavily. He glanced around the table, where everyone was now looking from him to Slav. “How?”

“In every reality where you die, it is often shortly after you find the Blue Lion.” Slav carefully cut into his waffles. “And by a very large cat. All of them. Most unusual.”

Takashi shared a look with Hunk, unsure how to respond. It felt strange, knowing that he was meant to die long ago, but... “We never came across any large cats in the past.”

“And that is how we know we live in one of the 16.027 percent of realities where you live,” Slav replied. He glanced at Takashi. “In two percent of _those_ realities, we are close friends, although you are not named Shiro.”

Takashi frowned in confusion. “Why wouldn't I be named Shiro?”

“Topic change!” Hunk loudly declared. “I vote we move away from talking about dead Shiros.”

“Seconded,” Pidge added.

“ _Please_ ,” Keith said.

“Well, this has been... lively conversation,” Allura said, smiling around at everyone. “I should hope we keep our spirits up when we learn which of us will fly the Black Lion.”

Takashi winced. “Actually, Allura, about that. We shouldn't need to find out who it is.”

“Yes?” Allura and the rest of the table stared at Takashi expectantly. Hunk nodded along encouragingly, while Keith and Pidge both offered their support in a smile and a thumbs up, respectively. “Did something happen?”

“It's me,” Takashi said. “I've been feeling a call toward Black for the last couple of days.”

Allura stared at Takashi, before smiling. “Oh, that's wonderful news! Congratulations, Shiro. We shall see you awaken Black once the coalition leaders have left.”

“They are already preparing for departure,” Coran hummed.

“Yester-quintant's meeting went well,” Kolivan said. He nodded at Takashi. “And I must say, you have great potential as a leader.”

“The coalition will be glad to know Voltron has a new leader,” Allura added. “I am glad to know that the coalition is coming together, and they will come together under Voltron.”

“Yeah, it's really neat.” Pidge glanced at Keith. “Speaking of, we didn't get a chance to talk. Are you okay with everyone knowing you're part Galra?”

Keith glanced at Kolivan, pulling out his knife. Takashi almost reprimanded him for pulling his knife at the table, but the thoughtful look on Keith's face held his tongue. “I think it will do some good, letting everyone know that there's some good Galra out there. And it's helping smooth over the idea of the rebels working alongside Galra like the Blade of Marmora. Even if I am part Galra, I'm still a Paladin of Voltron.”

Keith's knife glowed, and everyone yelled in surprise as it transformed into an elegant blade in Keith's hands. Stumbling out of his chair, Keith stared at his blade in shock.

“What the quiznack?” Keith looked from his blade to everyone. “Seriously?”

“Oh, that was so much more G-rated than I expected it to be,” Hunk whispered, hands clapped together over his mouth in awe.

“ _Hunk!_ ” Keith cried, flushing in embarrassment.

“What?” Hunk threw his hands in the air. “There's only so many times we can talk about you activating the blade without it starting to sound dirty.”

“He's right,” Pidge remarked, pointing at Hunk. “It did start to sound like a euphemism after a while.”

“Better than waking the dragon, at least,” Takashi helpfully added, to which Keith and Pidge both let out strangled screams. He grinned. “Still, this is great. I'm glad you figured out how to activate your blade, Keith.”

Keith stared back down at his blade, turning it over in his hand. It transformed back and forth several times before settling back into a knife. He glanced up at Kolivan and Antok, the beginnings of a glare hardening his gaze. “Was it just me realizing my place in the universe the entire time? Was that all I needed to learn?”

“You were told,” Antok replied. “The purpose of the trials is to learn and understand who you are. We were unaware you needed reminding that you are, above all else, a Paladin of Voltron.”

Keith let out a frustrated scream, pulling at his hair as he flopped back into his seat. He glanced around dispassionately, pulling his chair back up to the table. “Okay. Fine. That's fine. I'm okay.”

“Are you sure?” Pidge asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. “Because you look like you want to crawl back into bed.”

“Let me eat my waffles in peace,” Keith said around a mouthful of waffle. “And then we can get back on about Shiro.”

“Indeed.” Allura nodded, looking around the table. “We shall still gather in the Black Lion's hangar, and afterward, to the Blue Lion.”

Takashi shoved half a waffle into his mouth, using it as an excuse to keep quiet.

* * *

Standing outside of Black, Takashi could really appreciate just how she was the largest of the Lions. Almost twice the size of Blue, Black had an imposing, regal build. He could only imagine how much more so she looked when she was awake, radiating all the power that came with the sky and with the role as the head of Voltron.

He had never really appreciated it enough, had taken Black (and Lance) for granted, assured that Voltron's leader would always be there.

Takashi recalled Lance, the other Lance, having come to him after the robeast in the Thaldycon system. He could remember how Lance had comforted him, had helped him feel better in the wake of Ulaz's death. He also remembered how he had comforted Lance, how he had carried Lance back to their room, how he had helped Lance through the exhaustion. Takashi knew the weight that came with the role of Black Paladin, and knew how much it had tolled on Lance.

Takashi also knew how much Lance had relied on the support of his team, just as they had relied on the support of him.

“Hey man.” Hunk nudged Takashi gently. “It's okay.”

Glancing back at the team, he saw how hopeful and expectant they all looked. And how supportive.

Takashi nodded, giving Hunk a smile.

“Thanks,” he said. “I'm ready.”

He moved forward, gaining confidence with every stride. Behind him, Pidge whooped and hollered and was shushed by Coran and Allura, and he grinned. This was his team, and they had his back as much as he had theirs.

Entering Black reminded Takashi of the last time, with the lights dark and the emptiness echoing louder than anything. The air tasted fresh, if stale, and the faint echoes of birds and the wind bounced around the void Blue left behind, promising to fill it.

He breathed out, looking over the empty chair, the bayard still locked in place.

“I know you want me,” Takashi said. “I know what's going to happen once I sit down. And I– I want to promise you, that I will do everything I can to find Lance. I promise to be the leader both you and Lance believe I can be. And if you'll have me, I'd like to do it together.” Takashi sat down, looking over the dark consoles, the black screens. He closed his eyes. “We don't have to do this alone. I trust you.”

He reached for the controls, taking hold of them almost on instinct. The wind echoed louder and louder, until it felt like it was buffeting Takashi, pulling and pushing him to take flight, to join it in the skies.

Takashi opened his eyes, letting himself fall, letting himself fly.

Black roared to life, her consoles coming alive, the screens blinking to life. Takashi felt Black purr, felt her nudging him, steadying him as he regained his bearings while she settled into the place where Blue had been, open and endless and free. Together, Black stood, and roared.

Takashi spotted the bayard, waiting for someone to take hold of it, and Takashi pulled it from the console. He held it, regarded it, and felt Black settle down, felt himself steady alongside her. The head rush was fading, leaving him giddy and slightly dizzy and almost breathless with exhilaration in echo of Black's own.

“Thank you,” he breathed, settling into Black's cockpit, looking down at his cheering friends. Takashi smiled, comforted. “I won't let you down.”

Black purred to the tune of a crow's pleased warble.

* * *

After Black, Takashi had almost forgotten that he was returning to Blue's hangar, that he was seeing Allura step into his old place as Blue Paladin.

Seeing Blue's particle barrier still hurt, but with the comfort of his friends at his side and Black in the back of his mind, he could almost stand it. Takashi still couldn't stop the hurt that came from not feeling Blue's gaze on him. Blue had said her goodbye to him, now he had to say goodbye to her.

Allura stepped forward, looking at Blue with equal parts determination and nervousness.

“You'll be fine,” Takashi said, glancing back at Coran. “Blue's a great Lion. Trust that she knows what she's doing and be sure to listen to her. Flying a Lion isn't like flying the Castle.”

“I should know what I'm doing,” Allura said. “I have no doubts I will be an excellent pilot, and an excellent Paladin.”

“Your father would be proud of you,” Coran quietly said, gently placing a hand on Allura's shoulder. “As would your mother.” Coran puffed up with pride. “After all, your mother once flew the Blue Lion herself.”

“Mother did?” Allura looked over at Blue in awe. “I didn't know this. Then, Blaytz stepped down?”

Takashi blinked, bewildered, and glanced at the others. Hunk was practically bouncing in place, while Pidge had sidled closer and had their comms open, likely recording everything that was being said. Keith looked between the two, before shrugging helplessly.

“Blaytz moved to the Red Lion, for a time.” Coran's proud expression wilted. “It was... when we lost Daibazaal.”

Allura gasped, and Takashi straightened up. They were talking about the mysterious history of the previous Paladins, of Voltron's own past and creation.

“Father and Mother both were present?” Allura looked down, then back up at Blue with renewed determination. “I will do them both proud.”

“You already have,” Coran said, his voice filled with his own pride. “And myself, as well.”

Allura's look softened as she glanced at Coran, then strode toward Blue with her shoulders squared and back held straight. Together, Coran and Takashi stepped back, watching with bated breath.

Allura reached Blue's particle barrier, reaching one hand up. She hesitated, just for a moment, head bowed, before her gaze snapped up toward Blue. Placing her hand on the barrier, Takashi watched with an ache in his heart as it came down, Blue granting Allura access, accepting her new Paladin.

Takashi felt himself move, the blue bayard materializing in his hand for the last time. It was no longer his to wield, and deserved to be with Blue's new Paladin. He wondered what form it would take for Allura, what weapon she would wield.

“Here,” he said, thrusting it out toward Allura as she approached the group. Allura looked at Blue's bayard in shock, then at Takashi. “It's yours now, along with Blue. I know you'll treat them both well.” He smiled. “I don't think I would want to lose Blue to anyone else but you.”

“Shiro, I– thank you.” Allura took Blue's bayard, looking from it to Takashi. She looked melancholy. “However temporary this may be, I am honored to both call you Black Paladin, and to fight by your side.”

Takashi grinned, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. “Just remember, these are your people now.”

“One of us, one of us,” Pidge chanted, before Keith elbowed them. “Okay, first of all, _ow_. Second of all, you do remember that I have my bayard with me and I'm not afraid to use it.”

“I'm not worried,” Keith replied, rolling his eyes. He yelped when Pidge kicked him in the shin. “Hey!”

“I said I wasn't afraid to use my bayard,” Pidge taunted, smirking. “Not that I was going to _actually_ use it.”

“I want my shirt back,” Keith groaned, hopping on one foot while he rubbed at his injured shin.

“Too late, it's got my scent all over it.” Pidge patted Keith on the shoulder, helping him regain his balance when he tilted. “Mine and Hunk's. It's too late to trade us in.”

“Like I'd want to,” Keith replied, giving Pidge a fond look.

“I am... overjoyed to claim such company as theirs,” Allura said, looking almost like she regretted it.

“Don't worry too much about it,” Takashi said, giving Allura a grin. “Just remember to have some fun where you can.”

“I have fun!” Allura squawked. “The mice have been working on their routines. Chuchule and Plachu both have been testing a new routine. I've been coaching them.”

“Yeah,” Hunk said, sweeping both Takashi and Allura into a hug. “You'll fit right in. And look at us, leg buddies!”

“...I'm still a leg buddy?” Takashi asked, eyes wide.

“Oh, bud.” Hunk squeezed Takashi tighter. “Shiro, you'll always be my _best_ leg buddy.”

Takashi smiled, touched. He needed that reminder, that even though things had changed everything was still going to be okay.

* * *

Upon their return to the bridge, all the Blades were gathered around Thace's station, muttering amongst themselves. Pidge and Coran shared a baffled look before running over to see what the Blades were poring over. At their entrance, Kolivan looked around, perking up.

“You were successful, then?” Kolivan looked at the group. “And who shall be flying the Blue Lion?”

“I will,” Allura said, stepping forward. “So we have no worry about the issue of missing any Lions.”

“Excellent.” Kolivan canted his head, pleased.

“Is this a coded broadcast?” Pidge asked, looking up at Thace.

“From within the empire's central command,” Kolivan confirmed. He gestured at Thace, who pulled the broadcast up onto the main screen. “It's troubling news.”

“It's been broadcast on all frequencies, with minimal coding,” Thace explained. “It's almost not encrypted, which is what makes it troubling.”

“So we could hack it easily?” Hunk asked, peering up at the main screen.

“Anyone could hack into this.” Pidge frowned, reaching up to start decoding the broadcast. Thace moved aside, giving Pidge better access to the console. “Which is really weird.”

“Do you think the empire _wants_ everyone to watch it?” Takashi asked, feeling unsettled.

“We thought so as well,” Antok said. “It's what we were discussing when you entered.”

“It's not a virus, is it?” Hunk asked, nervously looking around the room. “Because this seems like a virus that could track anyone who watches it.”

“Not at all.” Thace shared a glance with Pidge, who shook their head. On the main screen, little Pidge heads covered the scrambled data and began to turn it into something that almost made sense.

“I have to agree, I'm not seeing any markers that it's a virus of any kind.” Pidge glanced up, looking toward Takashi for guidance. “What do you say, new boss? Do we decode it?”

Takashi steeled himself, and nodded. They couldn't keep out of the loop with the empire, and with something that the empire wanted everyone in the known universe to see? There was no question that it was something that Voltron and the Blade both needed to see.

“Alright.” Pidge kept tapping on the console, and up on the main screen the codes faded away into–

Takashi drew a sharp breath. “The arena.”

Keith stiffened, along with the others. Takashi could barely focus on anything beyond the arena, trapped in his half-remembered horrors.

“Shiro?” Keith shook Takashi, and he blinked. Looking around, Takashi saw everyone focused on him, while the video continued to clear up.

“Are you okay?” Hunk stepped closer, concern clear on his face.

“I– maybe?” Takashi shook his head to clear away the last of the lingering memories. “I didn't expect them to rebuild it so fast. But I'm better now. Thanks.”

“The broadcast is decoded.” Thace glanced down at his console. “It's a video feed, playing on a loop.”

“Let's watch it.” Takashi looked back up at the arena, hand clenching for want of Lance's own. He felt Hunk's hand on his shoulder, and Keith and Pidge pressing up against him from the side and front, grounding Takashi in the moment. Smiling, he nodded toward the main screen.

Within the arena, Takashi saw a Galra commander on their back, a sword broken in two beside them. Someone stood over them, small with long white hair and carrying a sword. The arena stands were filled with Galra, all of them wearing uniforms. The figure turned toward the camera, and he saw their humanoid features and purple skin.

Every Blade stiffened, sucking in a sharp breath and drawing the attention of the other Castle inhabitants.

“Lotor,” Kolivan hissed, staring at the screen in shock.

“Who's Lotor?” Pidge asked.

“The exiled prince,” Kolivan explained, not taking his eyes off the broadcast. “Zarkon's son.”

“Zarkon has a _son_?” Hunk asked, horrified. Beside Allura, Coran stiffened. “Who would– why would anyone– how?” Hunk shook his head, slapping his hands over his hears. “No! Don't tell me! Never, ever tell me. Ugh, it's getting in my brain, make it _stop_.”

“Imagine Coran in a swimsuit?” Keith offered, and Coran bristled in indignation. Hunk shuddered, but calmed down.

“Still horrifying, but I can live with that.” Hunk nodded. Up on the screen, Lotor looked out over the crowd.

“ _My father built our empire on the bones of his enemies._ ” Allura stiffened, glaring up at the screen alongside Coran. “ _But the time has come to change the old ways and inspire not fear from those we rule, but loyalty._ ”

“Oh, this is bad,” Hunk muttered. “So bad.”

Pidge shushed him, although they didn't look happy about this turn of events either.

“ _We must not waste our energy fighting to keep our subjects down but rather multiply it by allowing those worthy to rise and join our ranks._ ”

“So bad,” Hunk moaned, and this time Pidge didn't shush him. On screen, Lotor turned to offer a hand to the fallen commander, helping them back to their feet.

“ _The universe can no longer doubt our strength. Each ally gained only makes us stronger, while those who continue to stand against us... will be crushed._ ” Lotor turned, to look directly into the camera. Within the arena, every Galra began to chant Lotor's name. The video blurred, looping around as it started again.

“Oh, quiznack,” Takashi breathed. “He's different from Zarkon.”

“No. He's changed.” Kolivan turned away. “He was exiled for his behavior at Marmora's funeral, launching an attack at the memorial site that ultimately failed.”

“Rumors spread, even back then,” Thace said, tightly clutching the console. “He would allow those of mixed heritage to join the ranks and advance to commanding officers. Any systems he was in charge of, Lotor didn't invade. He left them to rule themselves.”

“So that's how he inspires loyalty,” Takashi said, frowning up at the screen. “That might make things harder.”

“It doesn't change anything for us,” Keith said, a fire in his eyes. “We're going to stop Lotor. We'll take him down just like we took down Zarkon.”

“Keith's right.” Allura moved toward the dais. “We've regained five Paladins at precisely the right time. Voltron must continue to fight.”

“I still want to know who took a look at Zarkon and, and–” Hunk shuddered. “Who would even _want_ to be the parent to his kid?”

“No one knows,” Kolivan replied, still looking unsettled. “Lotor is only half Galra. His mother's heritage and identity is unknown.”

“It can't be her,” Coran breathed, still staring at Lotor. “She perished long ago.”

“Who?” Keith groaned. “Don't tell us Zarkon had a wife or some kind of maiden.”

“Once.” Antok tilted his head. “Empress Honerva.”

“Wait a tick.” Hunk held up his hands, a thoughtful yet determined look on his face. “I thought Marmora was a place, not some kind of person.”

“I don't know this Marmora, but I do recall hearing of Honerva.” Allura shook her head, turning her attention toward Coran. “But she was Galra.”

“Honerva was Altean.” Coran glanced away, closing his eyes tight. “She was Zarkon's wife.”

“Zarkon was _married_?” Hunk turned green, “Oh, here comes the waffles.”

Keith and Pidge yelped, moving to comfort Hunk while holding a waste bag out for him to gag into.

Takashi winced, seeing grief in Coran. “Guys, let's calm down. Coran, you don't have to tell us the whole story just yet. We'll wait until you're ready.”

Coran nodded, looking grateful.

“What about Lotor?” Keith asked, rubbing Hunk's back. “What do we do about him?”

Takashi breathed out,

“We'll still answer distress signals, and work with the coalition,” Takashi said. He looked around the room, focusing in on Allura. “Since we've got someone new flying a Lion, and I'm in a different Lion, it's going to be a couple quintants before we can form Voltron again, so we'll include Allura in our training exercises– and our bonding exercises.”

“It shouldn't be that difficult to fly the Blue Lion,” Allura said, sticking near the dais. “But I cannot fault your reasoning.”

“The Blade of Marmora will have to go underground again,” Kolivan said. “If Lotor has changed this much, it's for the best that we investigate where he has been and what he plans to do. These may be the last quintants that we will work alongside Voltron for some time.”

“Now then, we should–” Allura froze, halfway to the dais, when the alarm went off.

“Oh quiznack!” Coran rushed to the forward console. He pulled down the video, replacing it with a blinking red icon. “It's an incoming distress signal. From one of our communicator devices.”

Takashi grit his teeth. The empire hadn't cared enough to fight for any of its lost systems before, but with Lotor in charge, the war had entered something new.

But then, the empire hadn't faced a Voltron with Takashi in charge. Not in this reality, at least.

“Which one?” Allura asked, already setting up to open a wormhole.

“Puig.” Coran looked up, worried. “Incoming visual signal.”

“Open it.” Takashi stood straighter, drawing on his own experiences as a leader from before, and from what he had seen of Lance.

On the main screen, the Puigian elder appeared, looking haggard. “Paladins of Voltron, the empire has returned. Please send help.”

The video cut off, and Takashi clenched his hands.

“Let's go,” Takashi said. “It's time to defend the universe.”

* * *

Puig was clear of any warships when the Castle arrived, and it left an uncertain feeling in Takashi's gut.

“Pidge, do you pick up any activity?” Takashi asked, keeping calm.

“Galra tracker says no.” Pidge shook their head.

“Galra... tracker?” Thace shared a baffled look with Antok before staring at Pidge in confusion. “What Galra tracker?”

“Nothing?” Takashi asked. “Not even in the area?”

Pidge shook their head, and the sense of unease only grew.

“Scans aren't picking up any activity on the planet's surface.” Coran looked up, just as confused as the rest of them. “It's cozier than a sleeping rolmflag.”

Takashi, Keith, and Hunk all looked at Pidge.

“Imagine a rabbit, but the size of a horse.” Pidge shook their head. “It's kind of creepy, if you actually saw it.”

“Something's not right here.” Takashi glanced at Kolivan and Thace. “Any transmissions? Could the empire have taken the Puigian elder hostage?”

“Nothing so far,” Thace replied.

“Open all communications,” Allura commanded. “Puig would not have sent that distress signal if there was not good reason.”

“Ship!” Hunk yelled, pointing at the main screen. A huge cruiser, sleek and black and almost as large as the Castle of Lions, appeared in the space above Puig.

“That's not one of the empire's,” Kolivan growled. “Nor is it one of ours.”

“Particle barrier raised!” Coran called out, pulling up a closer visual on the cruiser.

“They're hailing us!” Thace glanced up. “Audio only.”

“Let it through.” Takashi was tense, ready to go to his lion.

“Attention, Paladins of Voltron.” Everyone aboard the bridge stiffened at the sound of Lotor's voice. “I am Prince Lotor, Emperor Pro Tem of the Galra empire. Surrender now, or you will be destroyed.”

On screen, Takashi saw dozens of fighters fly out.

“To your Lions!” Takashi barked, halfway to Blue's pillar before he froze. He glanced back, and nodded toward Allura. “Allura, to Blue.”

“Of course.” Allura stepped away, moving toward Blue's pillar. Coran pointed at the right area for Takashi to stand, and he began to go down to Black.

Entering Black was different from Blue, and Takashi shivered at the sensation of Black purring, ready to jump back into battle. Nodding, Takashi grabbed the controls and launched. Black shot out of the hangar, her claws slicing through half a dozen fighters as they joined the fray.

“Yeah!” Keith crowed. “Let's go, Shiro!”

“Alright, Shiro!” Hunk cheered, although it sounded strained to Takashi's ears.

Takashi flew Black, pulling out her jawblade and slicing through the fighters with ease as more flew out of Lotor's ship. Putting away the jawblade, Takashi took aim and fired scatter shots, taking out another handful of fighters.

Black flew differently than Blue, flying with the same kind of maneuverability but with more speed. Takashi cut through space, slicing apart fighter after fighter. Black crowed in his mind, a victory cheer as she got to experience the fight once more, got to fly with her sisters once more.

“I'm here!” Allura called out, and Takashi winced when Allura barreled right into a cluster of fighters. Takashi dodged a stray blast when Allura fired, and watched as she tore into the fighters roughly. “I must admit, you were right, Shiro. The Blue Lion is certainly different from the Castle of Lions. She is much more agile than I expected.”

“She is,” Takashi said, focusing on the fighters. He glanced at the incoming groups. “Now let's keep all of Lotor's attention up here and away from Puig.”

“On it!” Keith dived forward, skimming dangerously close to Lotor's cruiser. Red's claws nearly dug into Lotor's ship, and Keith had to pull away from it with a dozen fighters close on his tail. Red spun, firing the magma blast and obliterating the fighters. “That should get his attention.”

“Regroup with us, Keith,” Takashi said, flying close to the others. “We shouldn't stray too far away from each other.”

“Got it.” Keith flew back toward Takashi and the others, expertly dodging several fighters in the process. “Now what?”

“Now we stick close and take out the rest of these fighters without worrying about hitting each other.” Takashi cut off, watching in confusion as the fighters made a retreat, Lotor's ship vanishing from view. “Or... not?”

“Paladins, I'm not reading any enemy activity in the system,” Coran said.

“That's... is that a victory?” Hunk asked, confused. “This doesn't feel like a victory.”

“I don't know,” Allura admitted, and Takashi had to agree with her.

“Coran, keep the particle barrier up,” Takashi said. “Everyone else, let's go down to the surface. Lotor might have laid a trap, so let's be careful.”

* * *

Lotor, as it turned out, didn't leave a trap, and after freeing the villagers Takashi was left with more questions than answers. What was Lotor's intent, if he didn't harm the Puigians? And why attack Puig at all, if he wasn't willing to keep control of it?

Worst of all was the feeling Takashi got, like Puig had been some kind of test.

“Paladins of Voltron!” One of the Puigians, looking nearly as old as the Puigian elder. “We are glad to see you have come.”

“Is everyone okay?” Takashi asked, looking out over the crowd. The Puigians looked scared, but were quickly overcoming it in awe of all five Lions present.

“We are fine,” the Puigian said, before she frowned. “But our elder, Razha, he is not well.”

“Was he injured?” Allura asked, coming to stand beside Takashi. “The Castle of Lions has cryopods capable of healing almost anything.”

“He is not injured, thank the ancients,” The Puigian replied, looking unsettled, “The invading force only sought to contain us. There were no injuries, beyond what happened to Razha.”

“Do you know what happened to him?” Takashi asked.

“No.” The Puigian looked down. “We found him passed out in the shrine. He has since awoken, although he claims not to remember what transpired since the Galra's return. He is resting now.”

Takashi shared a worried look with Allura, before focusing on the gathered Puigians. He raised his voice, letting it carry. “Well, you can rest easy. Voltron has chased away the empire. Puig is still free.”

“And we are still a part of your coalition.” The Puigian nodded to herself. “This attack has only strengthened our resolve to fight against the Galra. Puig thanks Voltron for this aid.”

“It's okay,” Hunk said, approaching with some Puigian kids hanging off his arms, and Pidge and Keith in tow.

“We're going to make sure this doesn't happen again,” Keith promised.

“Thank you, Paladins of Voltron.” The Puigians bowed.

* * *

After accepting the Puigians thanks, Takashi and the others returned to the Castle. Allura had broken off, claiming a need to pick out her own Paladin armor, while the others returned to the bridge. Once they were back, Keith went directly to his station, pulling up a map.

“I've got good news.” Keith sent the map to the main screen, pointing to a blinking red dot. “It turns out the Lions come with trackers. They're small, about the size of our bayards, and I managed to land one on Lotor's ship.”

Takashi looked up at the map, then over at Keith. “You bugged Lotor?”

“It's pretty well placed,” Pidge hummed. “And with a tracker that small on a ship that large, Lotor wouldn't find it with his scanners unless he was really paranoid.”

The map showed Lotor's ship was stationed over a moon several systems away, close enough for the Castle to travel.

“I'm calling trap,” Hunk said, raising a hand. Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged. “Hey, this felt enough like some kind of trap.”

“Hunk's right.” Takashi nodded at Puig. “This felt like Lotor was testing us more than trying to fight us.”

“I didn't register any ion cannons firing at you,” Coran noted. “Very unusual.”

Takashi stared at the map, at the tracker pinpointing Lotor's location.

“So do we go after him?” Keith asked, we know where he is, and he won't be expecting us to attack him so soon.”

Takashi thought about what Lance would do, and then thought about what he should do. He was the leader now, not Lance.

“I think we should press the offensive,” Allura said, stepping onto the bridge. She wore the Paladin armor, but her colors were uniquely pink.

“Princess,” Coran said, his voice subdued. “Are you sure about this?”

“I am.” Allura saw the others lost expressions, and explained. “Pink is the color of fallen warriors on Altea. I will wear it to honor my father, Altea, and all lives lost in the many pheebs since Altea's destruction.”

Takashi smiled, nodding approvingly. “Welcome to the team.”

“So?” Keith pointed at the map. “What's our plan?”

Takashi breathed, and set his gaze. “We attack. Let's show Lotor that Voltron isn't something he can toy with.”


	11. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a single word, everything changes

The Castle followed Red, thrusters at full speed. Lance sat in Black's seat, the map of Red's tracker beeping on his screen. Lotor's ship hadn't moved, remaining in stable orbit above the moon. They were doboshes away, at most, and getting closer.

“Keith.” Lance pulled out the comms. A video feed of Keith's face popped up, showing him staring away from the screen, glaring toward their destination. “Slow down. The Castle can't keep up with you.”

“Then get in your lions and join me out here,” Keith replied, terse and tense. “We can stop Lotor here and now.”

“And then what?” Lance asked, glaring at Keith. “When has it ever been so simple as go in, form Voltron, kick butt, and get out?”

“How?” Hunk asked, watching over the Castle's systems. “Because I want to make sure that everyone remembers some important information like, just spitballing here, Allura and Lance are in new lions. _And_ there's no guarantee that we can even form Voltron!”

“We don't know that for sure.” The entire situation wasn't ideal, on Lance's first day piloting Black (again, technically, even if it was his first time flying Black in this universe) and doubly so on Allura's first day piloting Blue. As much as he didn't want to admit it, they were fighting against the odds. “We were under the clock when we first fought Sendak.”

“Dude!” Hunk stared at Lance in betrayal.

“I'm not saying we can, just that we shouldn't count it out. If we go in thinking we can't, then we won't.” Lance glanced at the map, seeing the Castle enter the same system Lotor's ship resided. “We're quiznacking Voltron. We beat Zarkon, we can handle this.”

“Yeah, but we had Shiro with us,” Hunk pointed out.

“I agree with Hunk.” Pidge peered over their console. “We had time to prepare and we had Shiro with us, two things we don't have now. Also? We're ninety ticks out.”

“Quiznack.” Lance pulled down his console, getting to his feet. “Coran, are you and the Blades good to fly the Castle without Allura?”

“Can squimbrle feathers slice crystalline obrane?” Coran chuckled. “Not to worry, Lance. I've flown this ship for pheebs before Allura took the charge. We won't be able to activate the teludav, but that shouldn't be a problem.”

Lance shared a look with Allura. Her concerned gaze met his, and he smiled, reassuring. They couldn't predict how the battle would go, with how different Lotor was to all the other Galra they'd crossed paths with. For all Lance knew, they were going to have to beat a hasty retreat. “Good. Then let's get to our Lions.”

* * *

Launching in Black, Lance fell in line with Keith and the others, Allura not far behind.

“Alright, let's stick close together this time,” Lance commanded, pulling out a map of the system. There weren't that many planets, and the moon Lotor was stationed above was little more than an asteroid, hardly bigger than Kerberos.

“Okay, this still feels like a trap,” Hunk said. “A trappier trap than the trap we were just at. Does anyone else feel like we're flying into a trap?”

“Hunk, focus.” Lance spotted Lotor's ship, and tensed. “Even if it is a trap, we're not going to engage for longer than we have to.”

“Then let's form Voltron and destroy his ship,” Keith growled.

“Dude, his ship is almost as huge as the Castle,” Hunk pointed out. “We can't do that.”

“Or we could, but it would take a long time, which we don't have,” Pidge added. “Now, what's our plan here?”

“We scope out Lotor's reaction to a surprise attack,” Lance replied. “He pulled back way to easy, and I don't think it was because our reputation is just that awesome.”

“Are you sure?” Hunk asked, his voice trembling. “Because it could be our reputation. We could have become so awesome that once Lotor saw all five of the Lions he got scared and ran.”

As much as Lance wanted to believe it, as much as he wanted to believe that they had truly scared Lotor off, he couldn't. There was too much any of them didn't know, and this situation was one they were flying into blind.

Keith scoffed. “Do you really believe that?”

“I want to,” Hunk said, defensive and defeated. “But I know it's not true.”

“Cheer up, Hunk.” Lance glanced over at Yellow, and spotted Blue just a step out of alignment. “If Lotor's anything like his dad, then we don't have much to worry about.”

“Guys we got incoming!” Pidge's voice cut across the comms, and Lance straightened. “There's a fighter incoming.”

“Just one?” Lance asked, frowning at the scans pulling up a lone fighter, of a different design than the usual. The wings were tilted forward, long and sleek, and it appeared built for speed.

“This looks different from the ones you usually battle,” Allura said, suspicion creeping across her tone.

“Doesn't matter, so long as we stick togeth– Keith!” Lance shouted over the comms, eyes widening at Red streaking forward. The fighter twisted, wings curving as it jetted forward, smoothly spinning into a last-minute dodge. Lance barely had time to recognize that the fighter was skilled before it was zooming toward the group, firing what looked like railguns at them.

“Scatter!” Hunk cried out, and Lance grunted as Black was hit by the railgun—which, Lance was already calling space party foul on, there was only so many changes that he could take at once, couldn't Lotor just keep using the ion cannons and lasers that the empire was already known for?

Keeping eyes on the fighter, Lance dodged another burst of gunfire—and knocked right into a charging Keith. Black and Red went spinning, and Lance grunted as he reoriented Black.

“Keith, talk to me.” Lance peered around the battlefield, spotting Hunk and Pidge getting knocked around by the fighter. He opened all comms, hoping to pull everyone back into order. “Stick close, we're going to find Allura and–”

Blue came flying out, smashing against Yellow as the fighter dodged, strafing Green and sending Pidge spinning.

“Guys, that's not a robot!” Hunk sounded worried, which wasn't a good sign.

“I think that's Lotor,” Lance said, grimly tracking Lotor's ship. “Pull back together. We can't let him separate us again.”Lance flew up toward the others, pulling into a loose circle. “Allura, Hunk, Pidge, talk to me.”

“I'm good,” Pidge replied. “Green's a big roughed up but she'll be fine.”

“Yellow too.” Hunk groaned. “Ugh, I feel like I'm about to throw up.”

“Toss those cookies some other time, Hunk.” Lance glanced at Blue. “Allura? How about you?”

“I am alright.” Allura sounded wary. “But I am not so sure about Keith.”

Red bounded forward, jawblade forming as Keith clashed with Lotor. The two flew after one another in streaks of light, interspersed with the flashes of Lotor's railgun.

“Keith!” Lance called out, and grunted as Lotor flew back into their loose formation, knocking into them and causing everyone to slam into one another. “Quiznack!”

Black hit into Blue, and Lance heard Allura's pained grunt over the comms. Reorienting again, Lance saw Red get rammed into Green, while Yellow bounced away trying not to get hit. Red pulled away, Keith growling a yell as he went after Lotor once more.

“Oh, quiznack, I am tossing these cookies. Sorry Yellow!” Lance winced at the sound of Hunk hurling came over the comms.

“It's alright, Hunk,” Lance said. “Pidge, you still okay over there?”

“I'm not bleeding, if that's what you mean,” Pidge said, groaning. “Lotor's really kicking our butts.”

“Whoa, hey, no butts are being kicked.” Lance frowned. He looked over at Lotor, who was equal parts chasing and getting chased by Keith. “But we need to get moving. Keith can't keep up against Lotor alone.”

“I agree,” Allura said, her voice grim.

“So we're going after Lotor?” Hunk asked, his voice thick. “Still?”

“We're already here, and it's past time Lotor stopped pushing us around.” Lance grinned, grim and full of teeth. “Let's go!”

Everyone gathered around Black as they flew toward where Keith and Lotor were clashing. Lance was heartened by the loose formation, even as Allura bumped into him. All they needed was Keith, and they could gain the upper hand against Lotor.

“Ketih, come in,” Lance said, his grin losing it's sharp edge. “We're coming to join you.”

“That's good,” Keith said, breathless. “I don't know how long I can keep up with Lotor. He's as fast as Red and almost as agile.”

“Well, you're not alone anymore.” Allura's smile could be heard, and Lance's grip on Black's controls tightened.

“Yeah!” Hunk and Pidge shouted in unison, and Lance felt Black's roar echo alongside the other Lions.

“Let's form jawblades, everyone,” Lance said, feeling the weight of command settle back on his shoulders. “We can't afford to use our lasers this close together. Me and Keith will draw Lotor in close. Pidge and Allura, flank Hunk. Once Lotor's close enough, we'll all strike.”

“Right!” The cry came all at once, and Lance felt the first stirrings of the hurricane, their bond as Voltron echoing as he and Allura both settled into their new roles.

Up ahead, Red's jawblade formed, while Lance drew Black's own jawblade. Together, they darted forward, circling in tandem around Lotor. The three clashed, Lance growling in frustration alongside Black as their jawblade kept narrowly missing Lotor's ship, while he spun and darted away from Keith's attacks. Lance focused hard on his attacks, and how Lotor was dodging them.

“Keith,” he said, his voice low. “Direct him to the left!”

Red bounded forward in a burst of red light, striking away to Lotor's right and forcing him to move left. Lance grinned as he went at Lotor from above, forcing him to twist down.

“Now!” Lance yelled. At once, Pidge, Allura, and Hunk all shot forward from different sides, while Lance chased behind Lotor and Keith darted in from below Lotor's ship. They had Lotor surrounded, and unless his ship could turn on a dime, there was no escape for him.

The wings of Lotor's ship spun in place, rotating entirely and reorienting itself to the only direction the Lions couldn't cover. In a burst of purple, Lotor's ship shot forward, darting down toward the planet and away from the attack.

Lance yelped, twisting Black into a tight corkscrew as everyone screamed, narrowly missing hitting one another. Glancing out at Lotor's ship, he saw it slow down, almost goading them to follow toward the planet. The planet itself looked rough, all jagged edges and hidden within a thick ruddy cloud that sparked with lighting. He couldn't make out where the planet was within the cloud, and frowned.

“Pidge, run scans of that place. I want to know what's there that Lotor wants us to follow him to.” He pulled Black close toward Allura and Hunk, while Green and Red flew loosely around them.

“My scans can't pick up on everything,” Pidge said, frustrated. “There's too much interference.”

“Could he have something lying in wait?” Allura asked. “I do not like the feel of this.”

“I agree with Allura,” Hunk said. “This feels like a trap. Again.”

“I can barely pick anything up,” Pidge complained. “Green's not liking that planet. What readings I am getting is like that space storm. The interference that place gives off is super strong. We're this far away and I can barely get a read on what the Castle's scans are saying.”

“He wanted to cut off our comms,” Lance realized. “Keep us from calling each other.”

“Then we'll just have to stop him before he reaches there,” Keith growled, and Red shot forward once more.

“Keith wait!” Lance growled in frustration. He understood what Keith wanted, but Lotor was too close to the planet, and there was no guarantee that they could make it to Lotor before they were caught up in the planet's interference. “Keith!” Lance shot after Keith, pushing Black to her limit. “Guys, stay back. I'll get Keith. Keith! Pull back now! Keith!”

Lance snarled as Keith continued to ignore him, or couldn't hear him. Their comms were open, so Lance didn't know what it was that had Keith so distracted. He had to get through, had to say something that would pull Keith out. Up ahead, Lotor was back on the move, flying into the edges of the planet's atmosphere.

“Keith!” Red and Black both entered the planet's atmosphere, and Lance saw his consoles begin to fuzz with interference. Lightning arced all around them, and it was only a matter of time before he lost communication and his own telemetry. He had to get through to Keith. “Keith!” Lance wracked his brain, trying to find some way to get Keith to listen. In a fit of inspiration, he screamed, “ _Skywalker!_ ”

Red jolted, pulling away from the Lotor. Lance followed, the two turning tail and returning away from the planet.

“What?” Keith gasped, breathing heavily over the comms. He came in rough, the comms still affected by the planet. “Lance?”

“Come on,” Lance said, Black's consoles clearing up as they burst out of the planet. “Let's get back to the others, Skywalker.”

“You–” A video screen came up, and Lance found Keith staring at him, eyes wide in shock. “You called me–”

“Don't make me repeat myself, Skywalker,” Lance interrupted. “Are you good?”

“Yeah,” Keith breathed, looking almost dazed. He glanced away. “I... I messed up.”

“Yeah, you did,” Lance agreed, and Keith's face fell, disappointment heavy on his face. “But you pulled out of that trap and now we're fixing it.”

An alert popped up on Black's scanner, and Lance grunted as both Black and Red were fired on from behind. Lotor's ship flew at them, firing both his railgun and his ion cannon. Lance snarled, shooting back at Lotor, who dodged. Far beyond him, Lance's laser blast entered the planet's atmosphere, igniting it in a massive blaze.

“Oh, quiznack!” Lance yelped as the shockwave hit, rocking Black. “Keith! Let's move!”

“On it!” Red sped away, back toward the others. “Uh, Lance?”

Lance turned his attention away from Lotor, eyes widening in shock at the sight of a dozen fleet warships entering the system to join Lotor's main ship. Black's scanners picked up dozens of fighters closing in, and he reopened all comms.

“Guys? Hunk, Pidge, tell me what's happening.” Lance sped away from Lotor's ship, jawblade forming as he engaged the fighters. At least these were easily stopped, unlike Lotor's sleek little fighter.

“We don't know!” Hunk cried, and Lance spotted Yellow busting through a pair of fighters. “These guys came out of nowhere.”

“What happened with you?” Pidge all but demanded. “We lost contact with you, and you dropped from my scanners.”

“Lotor nearly dragged us into a trap,” Keith explained, Red coming to Pidge's rescue. “That planet's atmosphere exploded when Lance fired at it.”

Lotor's ship exploded into the field, firing at and strafing Black. Lance grunted, rolling with the motion and pulling Black into a corkscrew that sliced through four fighters. He scanned the battlefield, taking stock of where everyone was. “Where's Allura?”

“I am here!” Blue came into view, roughly slamming into a fighter before firing widely. Allura took down two fighters, and was besieged by a dozen others. “The Blue Lion has not been as easy to fly as I thought.”

“Calm down,” Lance said. “Remember to trust in Blue. Like I said, she knows what she's doing. Work with her, not against her.”

“I am _trying_ ,” Allura grunted. “This battle is not making things easy. I hardly have any control.”

Lance dismissed the jawblade, firing at the fighters chasing after Allura. “Loosen that control of yours. Blue Lion, Allura, means faith and trust. That goes both ways.”

“Of course,” Allura sighed heavily. “And thank you.”

“Lance! A little help here?” Hunk asked, drawing Lance's attention away from Blue and onto Yellow. Three fighters were chasing after Hunk, firing at him and Yellow and drawing him into the line of one of the fleet warship's ion cannons. Yellow narrowly dodged the hit, Hunk screaming in shock. Flying close, Black tore into the fighters going after Hunk, and Lance snarled, roaring alongside Black as Lotor fired on them again. Dodging another ion blast, Lance looked around at how the other Lions were The battle was chaos, and they weren't going to win like this.

They needed Voltron.

“Everyone gather on me,” Lance commanded, feeling his connection with Black. “We need to form Voltron.”

“Can we even form it?” Pidge asked, snarling as they fired Green's plant cannon at a pair of fighters.

“Not with that attitude,” Lance bit back. “Fly in formation. We can do this!”

The others gathered around Lance, Green and Yellow on one side while Red and Blue were on the other. Together, they flew forward, and Lance could feel it, could feel the stirrings of the hurricane, but still it remained out of reach.

“Nothing's happening,” Keith said. “What now?”

“Stick close,” Lance said, scanning for the Castle. An ion blast fired, and they broke formation, everyone firing at the fleet warship that had fired at them. “We didn't form it the first time we tried.”

“We didn't have you as a Black Paladin that time!” Keith growled.

“Well, we do now!” Lance looked over at Allura, seeing Blue stumble as she was fired upon. “Allura? How are you doing?”

“Not well,” Allura replied. She cried out as Blue failed to dodge an ion blast. Lance winced, looking over the battlefield for Lotor, but not finding him. “The Blue Lion still will not listen to me.”

“Try listening to her,” Lance offered. He fired at a pair of fighters, forming Black's jawblade and slicing up another three. “You can do this. I know you can. Open yourself up to Blue. Let her in.”

Everyone circled around Blue, protecting Allura as best they could. Lance knew that she could do it, knew it like he knew that he could fly Black and they could form Voltron. Blue had chosen Allura just like she had chosen Lance. He kept firing at the fighters surrounding them, listening to Hunk, Pidge, and Keith as one of the fleet warships flew in close. Lance saw the ion cannon charge, and pulled up Black's targeting. It was a risky move, but he knew that he could pull of that shot.

A burst of blue came from behind, and Lance's eyes widened in shock as the ion cannon froze over. He glanced back at Blue, grinning widely as she pranced into battle, Allura's laughter echoing through the comms. The two flew smoother than they had before, and Lance turned his attention back over to the fight at hand. Allura flew to Lance's side, the sonic cannon appearing on Blue's back as it fired at the volley of fighters ahead. Within moments, all of them stalled where they were, floating aimlessly.

“Yeah!” Lance cheered, his sentiment echoed by the others. “You did it!”

“I did!” Allura replied, pride seeping through her voice.

“Allura's that's so awesome.” Hunk's grin could be heard, and Pidge and Keith were right behind with their praise. Lance felt the stirrings of the hurricane beneath his connnection with Black, and nodded.

“Guys, let's get in formation,” Lance said, feeling the weight of his words. “It's time to form Voltron.”

They came together, flying in formation and feeling the connection with their lions. The hurricane came together, rough and unsteady but solid. Lance leaned on Black, holding everythign together,, keeping the hurricane solid. He would not let it fail, not again.

Voltron formed, returning to the universe after months apart.

“Hunk!” Lance called out, feeling himself move alongside the others. “Form cannon. Let's show them that Voltron's back and here to stay.”

Lance saw the targeting system come together, drawing on all of them as Hunk targeted as many of the fighters as possible and fired. The battlefield lit with the explosions of dozens of fighters, clearing the area around Voltron.

“Form sword!” Lance commanded, dropping the cannon while Keith yelled, drawing Voltron's sword. As one, they moved after the fleet warships, easily slicing through each one as they cleared the battlefield. All too soon, they were alone with only Lotor's ship, which pulled away, vanishing in retreat.

“He retreated?” Hunk asked. “Is this another trap?”

“I'm not reading my tracker anymore,” Keith said. “It's gone.”

“So Lotor's that paranoid,” Pidge mused.

“Let's head back to the Castle, guys,” Lance said, feeling the delight of forming Voltron fade away, leaving exhaustion behind. It reminded him of the first time he'd formed Voltron as the Black Paladin, in the other universe. All it did was remind Lance that he had to spend time bonding with Black in this universe too. “We're done here.”

* * *

Lance lurched out of Black, doing his best not to stumble to the ground. While it was rough forming Voltron, it was rougher still coming out of it. He knew he had the power, but Lance didn't yet have the bond with this Black like he'd gotten with the other Black.

“Give it time,” Lance said, wagging a finger at Black. “I'm gonna woo you with my trusting skills. You're awesome, and we're gonna be great together.”

Black rumbled, and Lance got the sense that she was preening at the praise. Smiling, he stepped out into the main hangar, where the others were waiting.

“Lance!” Hunk ran up, pulling him into a tight hug. “Dude, that was awesome! You were awesome! And so was Allura, but we already knew she was awesome. But that was so scary. Like, extra level scary. Please tell me we're not going into any more traps set by Lotor.”

“I'm not planning on it,” Lance replied, still smiling. He spotted Keith standing uncomfortably to the side. Squirming, Lance focused on Keith. “Hunk, buddy, put me down. We need to have a serious talk with Keith.”

Keith winced, crossing his arms defensively. “I know. I messed up and got us in trouble, you don't need to rub it in.”

“You got ahead of yourself,” Lance gently corrected. “If you'd gotten us all trapped on that planet, then you would have gotten us all in trouble. But you didn't, so we're good.” He smiled. “And besides, now we know that Lotor's paranoid enough to check for trackers. And we managed to form Voltron.”

“Lance is right,” Allura said, leaving everyone toward the elevator. “This was not the ideal circumstances, but I have begun to bond with the Blue Lion, and we have also managed to form Voltron.” She frowned. “Although your single-mindedness is rather worrisome.”

“Yeah.” Pidge nudged at Keith. “What was with all that? Couldn't you have waited for the rest of us before running off?”

“I thought–” Keith groaned. “I thought that if we could stop Lotor here and now, then we cold deal the empire a heave blow. Stop it from stabilizing.”

“Yeah, and that's awesome, but you still ran off without us,” Hunk pointed out. “You didn't even tell us about the tracker until you were already chasing after it.”

“That's not the Skywalker I know,” Lance said. “We're your family too, Keith. You need to trust in us. You're not in this fight alone. I thought you already knew that.”

“I do!” Keith protested, before shrinking in on himself. “I do. It's just– if the empire's falling apart, then that's faster that we'll find Shiro. I know I said I was okay, but I'm not.”

'It's a learning process,” Lance said. “It's going to take time. Just look how long it took us to do this paladin shuffle business.”

“We're ohana,” Hunk solemnly said, drawing Keith into a hug as they stepped into the elevator. “And ohana means family, you dumbo.”

“Family means talking to each other,” Lance added. “About emotions. _And_ our plans.”

“You're right,” Keith admitted. He slumped against Hunk, leaning into the hug. “I'm still getting used to this.”

“Like I said, it's a learning process.” Lance nodded, leaning against the wall. “Now, can we move along and talk about how awesome Allura was today?”

“Yeah we can.” Pidge grinned up at Allura. “You unlocked the sonic cannon! It took Lance months to do that!”

Lance winced, thinking over how he technically hadn't done that. He'd missed out on saving the mermaid planet, and on bonding so deeply with Blue. It had taken him so long to get so far with Blue, and Allura had managed to unlock both Blue's ice beam and sonic cannon in a matter of vargas from being chosen as the Blue Paladin.

Ultimately, Lance chose to be proud of Allura. She was a great paladin, and he'd already told her that she would make a great match for Blue. He couldn't be anything but proud of her, for excelling. She had a ton of potential in her, and Lance could see that flying Blue would be the best way for her to fulfill it.

Smiling, he clapped Allura on the shoulder. “You're a part of this family too, Allura. You did great out there. A natural Blue Paladin.” He nodded at the elevator doors as they opened up to the hallway outside the bridge. “Now come on. Let's wormhole out of this place.”

* * *

The bridge was tense as they wormholed out of the system, and away from the planet. Lance looked around at the Blade, and met Kolivan's gaze.

“So,” he said, wandering over to where Kolivan was poring over a map, “we've got a new problem.”

“Yes.” Kolivan canted his head in agreement. “With Lotor as Emperor Pro Tem, the Blade will have to adjust our course of action.”

“I think we all have to do that,” Lance admitted, glancing back at Allura. She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. “The war is changing now that Zarkon's dead.”

Kolivan glanced at Lance in surprise. “Zarkon is not dead. Lotor said he was Emperor Pro Tem. He is acting emperor until Zarkon can return to the throne.”

“Wait.” Hunk held up his hands. He stared at Kolivan with the flattest look he could muster. “Are you saying that after all that, we didn't even manage to _kill_ Zarkon?”

“It is likely that he will never recover, and is only a matter of time before his passing becomes known.” Antok swept his gaze over the bridge. “The damage dealt to him by Voltron was decisive enough. Whatever medical aid he is being given only delays the inevitable.”

“So what? We just wait out Zarkon's death while fighting Lotor?” Pidge asked, their voice dry.

“For now, the Blade will return to infiltration missions,” Kolivan said. “We will leave early on the next quintant to reconvene and redistribute our members. Lotor has changed enough that his time in exile must be studied.”

“Then it will be some time before Voltron and the Blade both work together,” Allura said. “Until then, the Blade of Marmora is just as much a part of the coalition as any other. Keep us apprised of what you learn and where your members are stationed.”

“Yeah, we don't want to accidentally explode a ship you guys are infiltrating,” Lance added. He glanced at Coran, who stood at the forward console, shoulders tense. “Be careful. We only just got used to you, so you can't go off dying on us now.”

“Death is not on our plans,” Antok agreed.

“So, what now?” Hunk asked, looking around the room. “Do we go back to saving planets?”

“We do,” Lance replied, stretching. “But tomorrow. It's been a long enough quintant already and I'm not looking forward to answering any distress signals after everything that's happened today.”

“I agree,” Allura said. “We shall see the Blade off after all of you have some rest. And then we will begin training.”

“Aww, but I wanted to see what the black bayard can turn into,” Hunk whined. “And what you've got.”

“Tomorrow,” Lance insisted, covering up a yawn. “For now, let's rest up.”

He glanced at Keith, who nodded. They could talk and train all they wanted, but first they needed to sleep. Or, Lance needed to sleep.

* * *

Standing in the training room, black bayard in hand, Lance couldn't help but recall when he'd been training alongside Takashi. Except back then he'd squared off without a bayard, and Takashi was his opponent half the time. Now though...

“Uh, aren't you supposed to be standing by my side?” Lance asked, squinting at the team, who were all neatly lined up along the wall. Hunk was bouncing along in excitement, while Pidge shook their head.

“No way. We want to see the black bayard in action.” Pidge smirked. “Also, maybe I want to see you get your butt handed to you by the gladiator bot.”

Lance balked, offended. “Okay, first of all, that's rude. Second, I've been training. I can handle the gladiator bot, bayard or no bayard.” He frowned. “Besides, why is Allura standing here with me? She's got a bayard now.”

“I can more than handle any training bot sent my way,” Allura primly declared. “This is hardly the time for me to learn about what form the bayard takes for me. Rather, you should take this time to familiarize yourself with the black bayard.”

“Allura is right,” Coran said, his voice echoing down over the intercom. He stood above them all in the control booth. “Now, begin training sequence, level three.”

Lance froze, eyes widening. “Hold the phone. Level three?”

A gladiator bot dropped down, a baton in hand. The bot rushed at Lance, and he yelped, drawing up the black bayard and forming his familiar rifle. He froze when it formed, but it looked sleeker, with a scope that it hadn't had before. Lance barely had time to process before the gladiator was upon him, spinning the baton from hand to hand as it assaulted him.

Leaping back, Lance tried to put some space between himself and the gladiator. Belatedly, he heard everyone's gasps about his new rifle, but he was more focused on surviving against a _level three gladiator, what the cheese_. He had all the time after beating the gladiator.

Pivoting on his heel, Lance ducked beneath the gladiator's swing, bringing the rifle up to fire. The gladiator's glowing eye gleamed, and its free hand knocked his shot off-course, while he continued sliding on his knees, slipping between the gladiator's legs and ending up right behind it. By the time he turned to fire, the gladiator had moved too, already aiming to strike true.

The black bayard glowed in his hand, shifting to become a sword that blocked the strike. Lance grunted, using both hands to steady the sword as he got to his feet.

“Supplementary sequence, level five,” Coran called out, and Lance bit back a curse as a second gladiator bot dropped down, this one with a sword in hand. Lance stepped back, knocking the baton away as he swung wildly, beheading the first gladiator and sending it away.

Spinning, Lance went on the defensive, drawing on everything he could remember about sword fighting (both what he knew about Keith's style, and what he's seen of the Blade's) and fought the second gladiator bot. Their swords clashed in a shower of sparks, and Lance felt himself sliding backwards as the gladiator pressed the advantage. When the gladiator pulled back to strike, Lance lunged backward, the black bayard changing form again, elongating into a familiar shape.

Lance spun the lance, swinging the blade and using it like he recalled Takashi using it. Yelling, Lance charged, knocking the gladiator's blade aside and impaling it with the lance. The gladiator slumped, defeated, and Lance pulled back, removing the lance from it as it was recalled into the floor. He stared at the weapon, a fond smile growing as he thought about Takashi.

“Whoa!” Hunk ran forward, Pidge alongside him, as they gazed at Lance's bayard in shock. “Dude. Dude! That's so cool! When did you unlock all these cool new shapes? Can my bayard change shapes?”

“The black bayard has no fixed form like the others,” Allura said, looking out over the lance curiously. “It is meant to reflect how the Black Paladin can connect and adapt to all other paladins, conforming to what is needed the most at the time.”

Lance chuckled, holding it up and running a hand over it, still gazing at the lance fondly. “That's so cool.”

“Why are you looking at that lance like that?” Pidge asked.

“Please don't be a dirty thing,” Hunk whispered.

“Were you fighting like me with that sword?” Keith asked, frowning. “Because you were terrible.”

“Hey, I think I did okay considering it was my first time with an actual sword, thank you very much,” Lance snapped, before softening. “And I'm looking at this because this is T– Shiro's bayard.”

“Wait what?” Pidge's eyes gleamed. “Shiro's bayard is a lance?”

“Yep.” Lance proudly posed with it. “I trained against it myself. It's pretty cool, if I say so myself. Not quite as sleek looking as this one, but still pretty neat.”

“I can't believe we've solved this mystery,” Hunk whispered, reaching out to the lance reverently. “Shiro's bayard is a pun.”

“Yeah, that's–” Lance froze, then glared at Hunk. “No. No it is not.”

“Yes, it is,” Hunk insisted. “It's you. Shiro's bayard is you!”

“I– ugh. No.” Lance shook his head. He deactivated his bayard, dropping his arm down to his side. “Look, can we at least see Allura's bayard now? I'm a curious george here.”

“A curious what?” Allura asked, staring at him blankly. Lance shook his head, waving it off. There was too much cultural explanation involved in that expression.

“I'm just really curious about what form your bayard takes,” Lance said, avoiding the explanation. “So? Let's see you go up against that gladiator bot.”

“Yes, of course,” Allura replied. She drew the blue bayard out, looking at it with an expectant smile. “I wonder if it will be an altean broadsword like Father's.” She glanced at Lance. “That was the style of sword you brought out, Lance. It's the same kind that my father used, even before he became a paladin.”

“Oh man, Allura.” Lance looked from the black bayard to the blue, and how it stood out against the pink of Allura's armor. “I guess we've both got people we're remembering.”

“It seems that way.” Allura nodded, then bustled everyone off to the side. “Now go along. I would like to test out my bayard on my own, just the once.”

In a flash of light, the bayard changed, and Lance squinted when it didn't seem noticeable. Allura looked it over thoughtfully, before grinning widely.

“Begin training sequence, level five,” Allura called out.

“It didn't change,” Pidge said, frowning.

“No, it's different now,” Lance said, his eyes sharp. “It's not much, but– whoa!”

They all watched in shock as the gladiator came down, and Allura launched out a glowing blue whip at it. The whip spun, wrapping around the gladiator as Allura used both hands to snap the whip, slamming the gladiator bot down on the floor hard enough to break.

“Oh wow,” Keith said, staring in awe. “That's actually pretty cool.”

“Restart sequence,” Allura said, with a determined look in her eyes. A second gladiator dropped down, and this time Allura let it land before she snapped the whip out, slicing the gladiator in two. Everyone winced, taking a step back in response.

“Can I do that?” Pidge asked. “I want to do that. I want to taze people _and_ slice them in half.”

Pidge pulled out their bayard, running over to Allura. They activated their bayard, stopping once it formed.

“Oh, that's new,” Hunk said. Pidge's bayard was sleeker, the edges of the grapple split in two and sharper. “Did all of our bayards change?”

Hunk and Keith shared a look, running out and drawing their bayards. Hunk's cannon was smoother, more rounded, while Keith's blade was thicker in width, even as the blade itself was slimmer. They shared a look, and grinned.

“Huh,” Lance said, walking to join his team. He smiled. “I guess having all five bayards changes things.”

“King Alfor once said that the bayard can evolve alongside its paladin, reflecting the user.” Coran's voice echoed through the room. “It looks to me like you've all evolved well into your own as paladins.”

“Yeah,” Lance said, still smiling as he looked over his team. He activated his bayard, hefting his rifle up. “Let's get to training, you guys. The universe isn't going to save itself without Voltron there helping it.”


	12. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, canon diverges. Sometimes, it... technically doesn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes there is now an official end chapter number. And yes, we are now working off a distinct and direct timeline. This is where things get Fun.

The tracker blinked on the map, growing closer as the Castle went after it. Takashi's eyes trained on it, mind running a million miles a minute. Lotor's ship hadn't moved in the doboshes since they started moving, and it gave him time to step back, and think.

Takashi wasn't the kind of tactician that Lance was, but he was still skilled in his own way. They would strike fast, and hard, and it would be enough to let Lotor know that baiting Voltron by taking entire planets hostage was not going to be something anyone would stand, least of all Voltron.

Actions had consequences.

 _Everything_ had consequences.

“Hey, Shiro?” Hunk asked, jolting Takashi out of his thoughts. He glanced at his friend, who was nervously poking his fingers together. “Should we... really be doing this? Not to question your leadership, because I'm not, I'm just... worried. About you. And us. And this plan. There is a plan, right?”

Takashi sighed. “Lotor took Puig hostage just to toy with us, Hunk. We barely made a dent against him and I don't like going into a situation blind either but we can't let this happen again. Our allies and the people we save aren't tools Lotor can use to get us to do what he wants.” He paused. “And yes, there's a plan.”

Hunk nodded, relieved. “Good. I was afraid you were having us attack with no plan.” He turned back to his station, before pausing and giving Shiro a flat look. “You know, we didn't stand for Zarkon holding the Balmera hostage either. And then we nearly died.”

“Don't worry, there's a clear plan here. Nobody's got a date with death.” Takashi cleared his throat, calling around the bridge. “We'll just do a quick strike. Go out, do a flyover to hit Lotor hard, and come back. There's no reason for any of us to stick around longer than we have to.”

On the main screen, they entered the same system as Lotor.

“90 ticks out,” Pidge called out. “Any scanners would have picked us up.”

Takashi nodded, slipping his helmet on. “Let's get to our lions.”

He moved toward Blue's pillar before stopping, glancing back at Allura. She looked at Takashi sadly, before steeling her resolve. He smiled, nodding encouragingly. Allura stepped away from the dais, moving along to Blue's pillar while Takashi went back across the bridge to the entrance down to Black's hangar.

“Coran, hold close to us,” Takashi ordered, the weight of command sitting heavily upon his shoulders. “Keep the particle barrier up. Lotor's already shown he's willing to take hostages, and we don't want to take any chances.”

“Yeah, like rushing into a battle,” Hunk muttered. Takashi gave him a flat look, unimpressed, which Hunk matched. “I'm right!”

“Quick strike, in and out,” Takashi repeated. “No unnecessary danger.”

“Like every plan we've had before?” Pidge asked, their voice drier than burned brisket. “Also? 20 ticks out.”

“Maybe we'll try hard this time,” Keith offered as he stepped up to Red's pillar. “It's not like Lotor can throw _more_ ships at us.”

“To your lions,” Takashi groaned, rubbing at his face. “Coran, can you handle flying the castle with the Blade?”

“Can squimbrle feathers slice through crystalline obrane?” Coran chuckled. “Not to worry, Shiro, I've flown the Castle of Lions for pheebs before Allura took the charge. Without her, though, we won't be able to operate the teludav.”

Takashi nodded. With any luck, they wouldn't have reason for a quick retreat.

* * *

Sinking into Black's cockpit, Takashi still couldn't find himself to sink into the familiarity that it left him. For all that Black sank into place at the back of his mind so easily, filling the slot in his soul that Blue once had, Takashi was hesitant to do the same. Black still had a sense of being Lance's space, a personal, intimate area that Takashi wasn't sure he was yet comfortable with. It would take time, time he didn't have, to find his place within Black.

Launching from the hangars, Takashi fell in line with the others.

“Uh, Shiro?” Hunk asked. A video screen popped up, Hunk looking at Takashi worriedly. “I don't think you're in the right position there, buddy.”

Takashi glanced to his side, where he flew to the right side of Red, and winced. He was in his old position in the formation, where Blue went. “Got it. Adjusting now.”

With a twist of the handles, Takashi circled over Red and into the center of the formation, flying at the forefront with the rest of the team on either side. Allura flew to join them, just missing knocking into Keith and Red as she joined formation. Together, they flew after Lotor.

The moon Lotor's ship orbited was small, hardly bigger than an asteroid. It reminded Takashi almost of Kerberos, and he recalled the last he'd seen of Commander Holt, and the last he'd seen of Matt. While he knew Matt was freed by a rebel group, he worried over where Commander Holt was. Takashi's crew was still missing, and Lance had joined them.

Pulling back into the present, Takashi refocused on the task at hand. The planet the moon loosely orbited looked jagged, rough mountains sticking out from a thick ruddy cloud that sparked with lightning. The entire setting gave Takashi the chills. He felt almost like he was two steps away from a horror movie, with how he couldn't see the planet's surface. The silence over the comms was deafening, leaving Takashi little choice but to fill it.

“Alright, let's stick close,” Takashi said, glancing at his team. “By now Lotor knows we're coming, but we'll still hold to the plan.”

“And what is the plan?” Allura asked. “You were vague on the details back in the Castle.”

Takashi breathed, getting his thoughts in order. “Pidge, you, Hunk, and Allura will stick in a close group, gathering all of Lotor's attention. He'll send out his fighters after us, so after we get enough of his attention you're going to keep fighting. Keith and I will break off, flying after his main ship and damage it. Once that's done, we'll regroup and pull back.”

“Got it!” everyone said, in unison, and Takashi felt Black's approving rumble, like distant thunder.

“Hold on,” Keith said, and his frown could be heard over the comms. “Something's not right.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Pidge said. “If Lotor knows we're here already, shouldn't we be seeing all those fighters? There's... nothing.”

“I'm calling trap.” Hunk's voice cut across the comms, frantic. “This whole thing sounds like a trap, and I can only take one of those in a single quintant. I call we retreat.”

“I agree with Hunk,” Allura said, sounding uncertain. “There is still much we don't know about Lotor. This does not feel right.”

“We'll still go through with it, but at the first sign of trouble, we'll pull out.” Takashi felt strange, taking the lead. He'd done it before, in small moments, but nothing anywhere like this. Being the decision-maker, being the leader, was a weight that felt heavy upon Takashi's shoulders. But he still had to lead, which meant making tough decisions.

His scanners beeped, Black a crow's warning cry.

“Pidge?” Takashi asked, pulling up his scanners. “What's going on?”

“A ship.” Pidge's frown sat heavy, even over the comms. A lone ship popped up on Takashi's screen, looking different from the usual fighters. It looked sleeker, with a completely different design. “This doesn't look like the usual ones we fight.”

“Just the one ship?” Allura asked, suspicious.

“Keith, take it out,” Takashi commanded. “We'll be right behind you.”

Red darted forward in a flash of red, jawblade forming. Takashi glanced at either side, practically feeling Pidge, Hunk, and Allura's uncertainty. Up ahead, Red sliced through space, spinning and going after the ship.

At the last second, the ship darted forward in a burst of purple, spinning in a tight corkscrew as it dodged Keith's attack. Takashi barely had time to blink before the ship was darting forward, seemingly as fast as Red.

“Oh, quiznack, it's coming right at us!” Hunk cried.

“Scatter!” Takashi yelled, pulling Black down and out of the way of the attack. Behind him, Allura cried out. Twisting, Takashi stared as Blue was strafed by the mysterious ship. “Pidge, with me! Hunk, Keith, regroup with Allura. Allura, are you okay?”

“I am fine,” Allura grunted. Blue dashed forward, bounding to meet up with Hunk. The ship trailed after her, firing something different. It wasn't lasers, and was... a railgun. Blue stumbled, and Allura growled when Blue was hit again. “This is nothing like the previous fighters.”

“I think it might be Lotor,” Keith said. “He's not flying like any of the other fighters we've fought.”

Takashi darted up, after the ship. It was true, the ship didn't fly like any of the others, instead acting and reacting more like someone alive was in the cockpit. There was little else it could be, but Lotor.

Firing at Lotor, Takashi growled in frustration as Lotor dodged. Black growled with him, and together they flew after Lotor. Keith joined in, Red flying in tandem beside Black as they engaged with Lotor. They streaked through space, red and purple trails speeding after Lotor's own. Jawblades formed, and sparks flew out when Lotor pulled another corkscrew maneuver, causing Red and Black's jawblades to clash.

“Uh, guys?” Hunk asked. Black's jawblade dissipated, and Takashi spun, firing off after Lotor. “Shiro? What's our plan here?”

Black twisted when Lotor rotated, and Takashi's eyes widened. Lotor dived at the others, firing again.

“Dodge!” Takashi yelled. “He's above you!”

Allura managed to move out of the way, but Yellow and Green were caught in the crossfire. Pidge and Hunk yelled out their hurts as Lotor barrelled into them. Red and Black shared a glance, Takashi and Keith both deciding to regroup with the others. This dogfighting was getting them nowhere.

“Are you okay?” Takashi asked, and grunted when Lotor turned his railgun on Black. Red broke off, Keith yelling about how he'll stay on Lotor while Takashi looked after the others. “Quiznack! Keith, don't stray too far. Hunk? Pidge?”

“I'm fine,” Pidge replied, sounding none the worse for wear. Hunk let out his own groaning affirmative. “What do we do, Shiro? He's literally flying circles around us.”

“We keep him engaged,” Takashi said, his tone grim. “Lotor wanted a fight, so we're going to give him one. Keith, pull back. Let's form Voltron!”

“What?” Everyone sounded as one over the comms, and Takashi wished there was another way. Lotor flew through the group again, knocking Allura into Keith sending Takashi into Hunk's path.

“We have to try,” Takashi said. “Us alone isn't enough. Voltron should be. We can use Hunk's cannon to target Lotor, or at least knock him off course.”

“Can we even do it?” Hunk asked, frantic. “You and Allura are both new to your lions.”

“It's too late to think about that.” Takashi frowned. “Lotor's toying with us, and it's past time he stopped. Voltron is more than enough to do that.”

“We're with you, Shiro,” Keith said, moving into formation. Hunk and Pidge both joined, and Allura as well, until they were back in formation.

“Let's form Voltron!” Takashi yelled, the five Lions flying forward. He reached out, feeling for that connection, for the others, only to have it come back in discordant jumbles of sounds.

“Uh, we're not doing anything,” Hunk said. Takashi felt his mounting frustration, and growled out when Lotor flew at them again. The formation broke, everyone moving in all directions.

Takashi oriented on Lotor, firing on instinct. Lotor dodged, and Takashi darted after him. “Everyone, converge on me. We'll chase Lotor closer to that planet. That storm covering it looks bad enough to mess him up.”

“Won't it mess us up too?” Pidge asked. “I can't get readings off it. Everything's disrupting when I try. I need time to run scans.”

“Trust me,” Takashi said, gaze still focused on Lotor, up ahead. “It will work.”

Black rumbled in discontent, but Takashi chose to ignore it. Even if they didn't stop Lotor here, even if they couldn't form Voltron, they still had to show Lotor what they were made of.

Everyone fell in line behind Black, flying close as they chased after Lotor, toward the planet. The storm seemed to shift, the lightning crackling and almost burning through the atmosphere as they entered. Visibility began to decrease, and Takashi blinked in shock as he had to start dodging columns of rock, pillars that jutted out from everywhere.

“Be careful!” Takashi called out, and he saw Black's consoles all fuzz and crackle. He jerked on the controls, and bit back a curse when he almost lost sight of Lotor. “Guys? Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” Pidge said, although their voice came in rough, like it was over an Earth radio instead of the crystal clarity of the comms. “This place is messing with our scanners.”

“This definitely feels like a trap,” Hunk bemoaned, and visibility got worse. Takashi could hardly tell which way was up, or how far they went until they reached the surface. He didn't know if there even was a surface, or if the planet was just a jagged mess of mountainous pillars. The storm itself, Takashi realized, wasn't a storm at all but the atmosphere, a thick ruddy fog that glowed a bloody red and colored everything in sight in that same red tint.

Allura cried out, and Takashi whirled, nearly getting run into by Keith and Pidge as he saw the yellow lights of Blue's eyes go spinning off.

“Allura!” Takashi cried out. “Pidge, contact the Castle. We're getting out of here.”

“I can't!” Pidge growled, frustrated. “This place is eating at our scanners and our comms. I don't know how we can even _find_ anything in here.”

“I called it,” Hunk said, panic on the edge of his voice. “The tables have turned. Lotor's flipped the script. The hunter has become the hunted.”

“Hunk!” Takashi barked out. “Calm down. We're going after Allura and then getting out of here.”

“How?” Keith asked. “I can't tell up from down in this place.”

“Ship!” Hunk cried out, and Lotor was firing on them from below, chasing Allura back into their group. Black shuddered under the force of Lotor's railgun, but when Takashi turned to see where Lotor was, there was nothing.

“Allura?” Pidge asked, and Takashi refocused. They had to get out of there, had to get back to the Castle and away. Everyone had been right, that they knew too little about Lotor. He had the upper hand, and they were one step behind. The switch was too much, and they had gone after Lotor too soon.

“I am– fine,” Allura said, sounding shaken. “Flying the Blue Lion is still not quite how I expect it.”

“Remember what I said about her,” Takashi offered. “Now, let's form a circle. Lotor keeps catching us by surprise. We need to establish a perimeter. Pidge, can you try plotting us a course out of here?”

“I can _try_.” Pidge's sarcasm came heavy over the comms. Takashi set Black between Red and Blue, floating in loose formation as he focused on what little visual he could gather. “There's not much we can do, though. I can barely tell up from down anymore. If you hadn't pulled a Keith I might have been able to use the Castle's scanners to tell what's happening.”

“Pulled a Keith?” Keith asked, affronted. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means,” Pidge ominously stated.

“Is this – are you still bitter about me rushing into situations?” Keith scoffed in disbelief. “You've done the same thing! We've all done the same thing!”

“I haven't,” Hunk piped up. Keith made an offended noise, and Hunk's shrug was tangible, even over the comms. “I'm just saying, out of all of us, I'm the one who hasn't gone rushing into a situation.”

“But calling a move after me?” Keith asked. “Sometimes you have to jump right into something to get it done.”

“And sometimes you don't,” Hunk dryly replied. “Like our current situation.”

“Paladins!” Allura called out, and everyone tensed. “I see movement.”

“Lotor?” Takashi asked, Black's head swiveling to look where Blue was pointed. He couldn't see anything but the dully and bloody red of the planet's atmosphere and the dark shadows of pillars.

“Wait, I'm getting something,” Pidge said, their voice rising into a shriek. “Behind us!”

Everyone pulled away, turning in place to see Lotor's ship flying directly into their circle. Takashi yelled, and everyone fired.

The world exploded, knocking them around and away from one another. Takashi could only see fire, could only feel the hurt that came from Black knocking into and through several stone pillars. He yelled over the comms, calling out for anyone. Black's consoles all blinked and fuzzed in error, and even Black's rumbles felt frantic, erratic winds that buffeted and tugged at Takashi. Reorienting, Takashi spotted a blur of movement, recognizing it as Lotor's ship. For half a moment he wanted to follow after, wanted to shoot Lotor down, let out his frustration and hurt, but...

His team was scattered, their locations unknown to him. They could be hurt, and it was all because of him. It was beyond clear to Takashi that Lotor knew about the tracker, and had lured Voltron to this planet. The atmosphere had to be explosive, which was why their blasters set it off and why Lotor had exclusively used his railgun.

Landing on a nearby pillar, Takashi breathed, reciting the alphabet backwards. He had to calm down, had to reign in his emotions. He'd channeled all his hurt and anger at the situation, at the loss of Blue and the loss of Lance both, into fighting Lotor, and all it had done was drag everyone into a trap they had barely a clue how to escape from.

Yellow lights appeared ahead, and Takashi froze, watching as the red lion slowly flew into view. For a brief moment Takashi found it odd that Red was upside down before wondering if maybe he was upside down instead. They had no way of telling which way the planet's surface was, or even if it had one. For all Takashi knew, the planet was made entirely of this explosive atmosphere, it's surface the jagged pillars that branched off of one another in every direction.

“Keith,” Takashi breathed, letting himself solidify into the moment once more. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” Keith said, practically waving him off. “Shiro, how are you?”

“I'm...” Takashi hesitated to say fine, because he wasn't. “I'm a little shaken up. I'm sorry. I got us into this mess, but we're going to get out of it. Together. Do you know where the others are?”

“No.” Keith's frown could almost be heard. “I haven't seen anyone since the explosion. I think the atmosphere's flammable.”

“I think so too,” Takashi agreed. “This was a trap.”

“Lotor's out here, somewhere.” Red turned, yellow gaze piercing through the fog. “Shiro, what do we do?”

Takashi opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't know. They couldn't remain in place, but they couldn't go flying blind through the planet. There was just as much chance that they would come out the other side as there was of finding any of the others. With how scattered they were, Takashi was reminded of how it felt after the wormhole, each of them separated and unable to contact one another.

“We...” Takashi breathed, setting back. “We hold, for the moment. Lotor's still looking for us, out there, and if we start moving, then we'll just draw his attention. We can't fight back, not without the possible threat of hurting one of the others.”

There was little they could actually do. With how the planet messed with everyone's comms, Takashi doubted it was wise to fly blind through the entire planet and call out for the others. What they needed was a miracle.

“Someone's coming,” Keith said, Red's head swiveling to look to Takashi's right. Together, they saw the yellow lights and moving shadow of one of the lions.

“Hello?” Allura's voice came out over the comms, crackly. “Shiro? Keith?”

“Allura,” Takashi breathed, relieved. “You found us.”

“I did.” Allura's smile shone through even the comms. “I did as you said, and it worked. Blue's ice cannon proved a powerful weapon against Lotor. And her sonic cannon has mapped this entire planet. I know where we are, and where to find Pidge and Hunk.”

“Good.” Takashi glanced over at Red, practically feeling the restless energy Keith had in wanting to find his datefriends. Red was bouncing in place, looking from Blue to Black. “Let's regroup with them and get out of here.”

Allura took the lead, Takashi and Keith following along as she expertly darted around pillars and twisted through the air. She knew the planet well, had a comprehensive map from Blue's sonar, that all Takashi and Keith could do was follow. Even better, Allura's attack against Lotor sounded like it was enough to cause him to retreat, for now. All too soon, Takashi spotted the shadows of Yellow and Green. Grinning, he called out to them.

“Hunk, Pidge! Are you okay?”

“Shiro!” they both cried out, excited and relieved.

“That was so scary!” Hunk said. “The entire place exploded!”

“I was just talking about trying to boost our signals to break through all this interference,” Pidge said. “How did you do it?”

“It was me,” Allura answered, pride in her voice. “And the Blue Lion, of course. Together, we mapped the entire planet.”

“ _And_ she attacked Lotor!” Keith added.

“The ice beam froze one of his wings, so he couldn't maneuver. I was able to get away after that. It was nothing.” Allura's smile was infectious. Takashi couldn't help but feel proud. Allura was a fine pilot, and hearing how well she was doing with Blue... he couldn't help but feel happy for them both.

“It was great!” Takashi could only imagine how much further Allura could go, connecting with Blue. “Allura, you saved us. Now, can you guide us out of here?”

“Of course.” Blue turned, pointing upwards—or, apparently, outwards. “We should stick close until we are out of the draw of this dreadful planet.”

Everyone lined up, Allura in the lead and Takashi in the back. By Allura's lead, they moved away from the planet, out of the atmosphere. They were about to bring an end to this mistake of a mission.

“Okay, everyone,” Takashi said, looking out at the line. Despite it all, he was flying by sight, only upon the sight of the Red Lion in front of him, the Blue Lion a shadow amid the atmosphere.

They came out of the planet, spotting Lotor flying back to his main ship. One of his wings was coated in ice, and Takashi grinned in pride. Black's console smoothed out, the fuzz vanishing, and the comms cleared.

“Paladins!” Coran cried, his voice coming through clear as glass. “You need to get away from there. The planet is surrounded by a cloud of red xynthian nitrate! It's explosive if you fire any lasers within it.”

“We know.” Allura sighed, put-upon. “Prepare for our return.”

“Oh no.” Hunk drew everyone's attention, and Takashi felt his stomach drop out at the sight of a dozen fleet warships come into view. In the back of his mind, Black let out a parrot's caw, echoing double. Hundreds of fighters came flying out of the fleet warships, swarming around them.

“We have to fight!” Takashi commanded, feeling the stirrings of a hurricane in the back of his mind.

“The last time we faced this many fleet warships, we had a plan!” Pidge cried. “We don't have a plan here!”

“Yes we do.” Takashi leaned into the sensation, let himself become the center of everything. His place was no longer to support, but to hold them all together. “Everyone, with me. Form Voltron!”

Takashi flew forward, the conviction he held drawing everyone else into formation. The winds buffeted him, the storm crying to life. Voltron came together, a hurricane of unstoppable force, Takashi at its eye.

For the first time in months, Voltron was _back_.

The strain was intense, so much that Takashi marveled at how Lance could manage it. But still, he persisted. He was the Black Paladin, the leader of Voltron, the one who connected the five paladins.

“Form sword!” Takashi commanded, trying to ignore how it felt like Black was being pulled in two directions, like there was someone else out there connected to Black. As much as he wanted it to be Lance, as much as he wanted to take the time to explore that sensation, he couldn't.

Keith yelled, and Voltron's sword was drawn, slicing through a dozen of the fighters with ease. As one, Voltron flew forward, sword cutting through the fighters. Once, briefly, Takashi heard a bird's cry at the edges, the pull Black felt toward someone else, but again he ignored it. Later, he told himself. He would connect with Black later, reaching out to find Lance. Now, he and the others were needed as Voltron.

Voltron stabbed into one of the fleet warships, dragging the sword along and through it, slicing it in half. The warship exploded, and Takashi spotted an ion cannon charging.

“Form shield.” The words flowed with ease, and the sword vanished in a burst of light, replaced with the shield. Blocking the ion cannon was easy, and Takashi saw how they were all surrounded by swarming fighters, saw Lotor's main ship in the distance, away from the rest of the fleet warships.

“Hunk! Let's pull out your cannon, and clear the area.” Takashi breathed, directing Voltron and working alongside the others. Yellow's cannon came up, the targeting screen focusing on dozens of fighters and the remaining fleet warships. “Fire!”

The system erupted in light as the cannon fired, clearing the battlefield as half the fighters and every fleet warship were all eradicated. Debris scattered the area, the remaining fighters flying about aimlessly, some retreating back to the ruins of the destroyed warships. Takashi surveyed the battlefield, turning Voltron's attention to Lotor's ship. After a moment, it vanished, speeding away in retreat.

“We did it!” Hunk cheered.

“Hunk, I'm a _leg_!” Allura cried, joyous.

Takashi laughed, big and loud. This was a victory for them, more than they could have ever hoped for.

“Come on guys,” he said, still feeling the rush. “Let's break up and head back to the Castle.”

Voltron came apart in the same way it formed, the hurricane separating back into its individual parts. Takashi was left with the void of the wind, and at its edges he could still hear the parrot's echoing cry, which he now could identify as someone else, at the edge of Black's connection with Takashi. It was Lance, Takashi realized, and felt his heart swell. He was feeling Lance.

Grinning, Takashi led the return to the Castle.

* * *

Stepping out into the main hangar, Takashi caught Hunk whooping, pulling everyone up into a massive hug.

“We did it!” Hunk cheered. “Like, I thought we were going to die a couple times, but we did it!” He grinned at Allura. “You were an awesome leg.”

“So awesome!” Pidge agreed.

“The second-best leg around,” Keith said. At everyone's pout, he balked. “What? Hunk's clearly the best leg around!”

“Agreed,” Pidge said, nodding. “But this is Allura's moment.”

“And Shiro's.” Hunk spotted Shiro, setting everyone down to wave him over. “Shiro! That was so awesome! I can't believe we did that!”

Takashi grinned, feeling like he'd run a marathon. He knew how exhausting it was to form Voltron, had been there both times for both Lances, but hadn't realized just how much of a strain it was.

“I know.” Takashi let himself get picked up and spun around, couldn't hold back his own laughter. “It was great!”

Together, they rode the elevator up to the bridge, chatting excitedly about how great it was to form Voltron again, and how great it would be to do missions together again. Takashi leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes but still grinning wildly. The elation hadn't died down a bit, but there were still matters that needed attending.

“Guys,” Takashi said, drawing everyone's attention. Keith froze in a retelling of the fight, and moved up against Takashi in concern. Takashi waved him off. “No, I'm fine. Just a bit tired. I'll need some time to bond with Black. Remember how Lance was when we first formed Voltron with him? It's like that.”

“Is that all?” Hunk asked, and Takashi smiled. “Dude, that's easy stuff. We can bond with our lions any time.”

“It's not just that,” Takashi said. “I felt... Hunk, I felt Lance. Through Black.”

Everyone froze, staring at Takashi wide-eyed.

“What?” Hunk asked, his voice quiet.

“Are you sure?” Pidge demanded, squinting up at Takashi.

“I'm not joshing you, guys,” Takashi met Hunk's intense gaze. “I felt Lance. He's out there. I think we can use Black's connection with him to find out where he is.”

“We'll need time, though,” Allura said, frowning. “With Lotor leading the empire now, there will be a surge in the empire's fighting. The coalition is still forming, Shiro. As much as I would like to spend several quintants focused on your bond with the Black Lion, the fight against the empire will not rest while we do so.”

“So we just– we hold off on getting Lance back?” Hunk asked, staring at Allura in disbelief.

“I hate to say it, but I agree with Allura,” Keith said, looking away from Hunk. “We can't step away from the fight now.”

“But–” Hunk looked at Takashi for help, and he wished he could say what Hunk wanted to hear.

“The whole point of this lion switch was so that we could find Lance faster,” Takashi said gently. “And it isn't for forever. We know he's still out there, and we know he's trying to get back to us. The moment the coalition is stable enough to hold its own we can take the time I need to strengthen my bond with Black. Until that time, we'll do everything we can.”

The elevator doors slid open, and while Hunk didn't look pleased, he was satisfied enough.

“I'm holding you to that, Shiro,” Hunk said, wagging a finger at Takashi. “We're finding my best bud, even if I have to strap you to the seat of the Black Lion to do it.”

“I want him back just as much as you do, Hunk.” Takashi clasped Hunk's shoulder as they walked toward the bridge. “I promise, Lance _will_ come back. I'll set Black's scanner to search for his biosignature if I have to.”

“You do that,” Hunk said. “And set it to yours too. I don't want to lose you either.”

“I will,” Takashi said, nodding. Together, they entered the bridge.

Allura stepped onto the dais, opening a wormhole. Kolivan was going over the map with the gathered Blades, and Takashi was halfway to his seat before he froze, turning away from the blue station and going to the black.

“Alright, tomorrow we're waking up early for training,” Takashi said, looking out over everyone. “Allura and I are in new lions, so we still need time to adjust. Which is why we're spending the day going back over all our training and bonding exercises.”

“Sweet!” Hunk cheered. “We're playing red rover and I spy!”

“And bayard training,” Pidge added, looking from Takashi to Allura with a gleam in their eye. “I want to see what Allura's got for a bayard.”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah!” Hunk nodded, while Keith sat up straighter. “I do too!”

“We will be leaving early on the next quintant,” Kolivan said, drawing everyone's attention. “The infiltration missions required to learn more about Lotor must start immediately.”

“I will be returning to Olkarion,” Slav said, from where he was wrapped around Antok's shoulders. “Their technology is quite sophisticated and I am curious to study it more. And in 98 percent of all realities it is where Voltron operates a refugee encampment out of, making it the safest place I could be.”

“I will not be able to join you, though, old friend,” Antok sad, tilting his head to look sadly at Slav. “The Olkari are not so trusting of Galra.”

“It is temporary,” Slav replied matter-of-factly. “In 63.97 percent of all realities, the Olkari become more accommodating of the Blade of Marmora. I will see to that.”

Takashi nodded, glancing at Allura.

“We can ready some podships for you to take,” Allura said. “Although, we will be returning to Olkarion ourselves for our training. If you had any concessions...”

“Of course not!” Slav said, looking back at Antok fondly. “But I will miss you, old friend. Come and visit.”

“I will do my best not to die,” Antok promised.

Slav laughed. “This is the reality where you live, old friend! But stay safe anyway.”

Takashi blinked, connecting the dots. Slav and Antok, they were... together?

He was really not going to look deeply into that. There were some rabbit holes better left alone.

“Will you be returning?” Keith asked. “Because since I finally learned to activate my blade I thought we could continue my training.”

“You passed the trails, and have a blade of your own,” Kolivan said, rumbling with pride. “You are free to come to us for training as you like. Perhaps even you may one day join us on a mission.”

“But not too soon,” Takashi intervened, glancing at Keith. “You're needed around here for now. Once things settle down enough that you can start going on missions with the Blade.”

“I know, Shiro,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “I wanted to make sure the offer was there.”

“And it is,” Kolivan said. “But I would not wish to remove you from your duties as a Paladin. You are a Paladin of Voltron first and foremost. Here is where you ultimately belong.”

* * *

The next day saw Takashi in the training room, the black bayard in hand. He glanced to the side, where everyone was standing up against the wall, and up at the control booth, where Coran stood overlooking them.

“Now don't worry, I'm starting you off on a level you already know.” Coran's cheerful voice echoed down, and Takashi didn't feel reassured in the slightest.

“Why do I have to do this alone?” Takashi asked, glancing off at his audience. “Can't you guys get over here with me?”

“But we want to see you use the black bayard,” Keith said, grinning.

“And I want to watch you go up against what Coran thinks an easy level is,” Pidge added.

“Begin training sequence,” Coran called out, and Takashi yelped, moving into position. He felt the bayard activate, taking the form of his lance, and blinked at how sleeker it looked, the blade sharper and longer, and the tassel a deep feathered black.

“Um,” Takashi said, and nearly got brained by the gladiator bot. Stepping back, Takashi spun his lance, blocking the bot's sword and knocking it aside. The bot, undeterred, spun on its heel, its sword slicing through the air. Ducking, Takashi kicked out, using the tasseled end of his lance to knock the bot backwards. Out of the corner of his eye, Takashi spotted a second bot drop down, and he winced.

Rolling backward, Takashi brought up his lance to block the second gladiator's sword, only to see that it had a pair of tonfa. Eyes widening, Takashi stumbled backwards, ducking and hurriedly blocking as he was surrounded on both sides by the gladiator bots. He ducked the sword, dodging out of the way of a swinging tonfa, and growled. He didn't know what the quiznack Coran was thinking, but this was too much. There was no room to move his lance, let alone retaliate. If he only had–

The black bayard shifted forms in a burst of light, and Takashi jumped to the side. Bringing up the gun, he stared down the sightline and fired at both bots. While he wasn't the best shot, needing several more blasts than someone of Lance's caliber would need, he was still good enough to take down both gladiator bots.

“Behind you!” Hunk warned, and Takashi felt the bayard shift again as he spun around, turning into a shield to protect against the third gladiator bot's sword. Takashi pushed back with the shield, and the bayard—his bayard—shifted again, turning back into his lance. Spinning his lance, Takashi knocked the gladiator bot's sword aside, then drove the point of his lance deep into its chest.

Pulling away, Takashi looked down at his bayard in wonder, before glancing around wildly for a possible fourth gladiator bot. When no fourth bot appeared, he calmed down, letting his bayard return to its base form.

“Dude!” Hunk called out, running out to meet him. “That was so awesome! Can all bayards do that? Can I do that? Will I be able to do that?”

Hunk made to pull out his bayard, but Coran's voice cut through the air and his excitement. “No can do, Hunk. At least, not yet. Only the black bayard has no fixed shape.”

“Awww,” Hunk drooped, and got consoling pats on the back by Pidge and Keith as the others approached. “I wanted my bayard to become all those cool things.”

“My father once told me that the bayard evolves with its paladin,” Allura said, drawing out the blue bayard. “Perhaps one quintant in the future you may be able to unlock different forms.”

Everyone perked up at that, then excitedly glanced down at the bayard in Allura's hand.

“Well, time to see what Allura's got!” Pidge crowed, grabbing onto Takashi's arm and pulling him off to the side. “Come on, come on! I want to see what weapon she has!”

Once Takashi joined the others up against the wall, Allura nodded up at Coran. A gladiator bot dropped down, and Allura squeezed her bayard tightly. It flashed, and Takashi squinted to see if there was any change to it.

“Did it work?” Keith asked. “I don't see anything.”

Allura snapped her hand out, and a whip lashed out, brightly glowing a blue-pink. Everyone screamed and cheered as Allura wrapped the whip around the gladiator bot and yanked, pulling it down and slamming it into the floor. Pidge whooped and hollered, climbing up onto Keith for added height.

A second gladiator bot dropped, and Allura spun, her whip curving with her. In one snap, everyone went silent as Allura's whip sliced the gladiator bot clean in half.

“Whoa,” Pidge breathed, slipping off of Keith's shoulders and back onto the floor. There were stars in their eyes. “That's so awesome! Can I do that? I want to taze and slice!”

Pidge ran out into the room, drawing their bayard. It activated, and Pidge stumbled, staring down at their bayard in shock. Takashi stared too, at the different design Pidge's bayard too. The grapple blade was two-pronged now, and looked sleeker and sharper.

“Did all our bayards get an upgrade?” Hunk asked, sharing a look with Keith as they ran out into the room and drew their bayards. Hunk's cannon was different too, more rounded and compact, while Keith's blade was wider, the flat of the blade somehow flatter. Hunk grinned. “We got upgrades!”

“Shiro, get out here!” Pidge called out, bouncing in place. “Let's get to training!”

Glancing down at his bayard, Takashi couldn't help but smile. For a brief moment there, he'd used Lance's gun. Even if Lance wasn't with them, he was still there in spirit. The team was coming together, they were going to stop Lotor and find Lance, and everything was going to be great.


	13. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Assembly (Still) Required

Lance stood in the training room, the others at his back. They were in a circle, shields up, waiting for Coran to start the exercise.

“Remind me why we're doing this again?” Pidge asked, glancing from side to side.

“Because Lance wants us to suffer,” Keith blandly replied.

“No,” Lance said, narrowing his eyes. “I want us to do this as a trust exercise. It's either this or Allura throws us across the room at the gladiator bot.”

“I would not!” Allura protested, before quietly adding, “More than once, at least.”

“Can't we do the maze thing? I want to do the maze thing.” Hunk shuffled in place, nervously glancing around the room.

“Not quite yet, number two.” Coran's cheerful tone rang through the room, putting everyone on edge. Floating orbs darting into the room, their evil masked only by their innocuous appearance. The orbs spun around the circled paladins, incredibly menacingly in Lance's opinion. “Remember to protect one another. Princess Allura especially.”

Allura grimaced. “Coran, there's really no need to–”

“Begin!” Coran shouted, and everyone screamed.

The orbs were merciless, rapidly spinning and firing down at them from above. Lance did his best to defend himself and the others, knowing by heart how to work with them. A knock to his shoulder had him nearly get shot at, and when he ducked instinctively to avoid the shot, Pidge went down with a yelp. Pidge fell forward, into the hole that had opened up beneath them.

“Oh, and number five is the first down! Will our remaining paladins retain their defense?” Coran's commentary neatly cut through the air, nearly causing Hunk to miss blocking a shot that was aimed at Allura's back.

The group shrunk, closing ranks. Keith was on Lance's left, Hunk was at his back, and Allura on his right, her mouth set in a thin line. She blocked the shots with ease, sometimes moving to block shots that Lance or Hunk could have blocked.

“Stick to your range,” Lance said, drawing on his experience as a leader once more. “Remember that we're all here to protect each other.”

“I know that,” Keith growled, turning to glare at Lance. He blocked a trio of shots that were after Hunk. For his part, Hunk sidestepped, giving Keith the room to maneuver.

“Keep your head in the game.” Lance stopped a shot that was aimed for his face—seriously, Coran was the one wanting them to suffer, not Lance. “Keith, you're doing great. Allura, stay sharp.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lance spotted Allura ducking to block a low shot meant for Hunk, leaving Keith's back wide open. Lance yelped, sticking his arm out to block a pair of orbs firing down at Keith's open back, missing the one orb that hit him in his side.

The ground opened up beneath Lance and he fell. Tumbling down the chute, Lance landed in a heap beside Pidge. They smirked down at Lance. “Welcome back, fearless leader.”

The holding room was a blank area, looking much like a waiting room, if the waiting room had been designed to look like the inside of an intricate metal box. To one side, a small elevator led up to the training room and the control booth.

“That was fast,” Lance said, clambering to his feet. He brushed off imaginary dust, straightening up. “Let's go watch how the others are doing.”

“My bet is Hunk's the next one to go down,” Pidge offered as they stepped into the elevator.

“Betting is rude,” Lance replied. “Allura's doing good, but she keeps leaving whoever is behind her open for attack. But if I was going to bet, which I'm not because betting is wrong, I'd put my GAC on Allura.”

Together, they stepped out of the elevator and into the control room. Coran gave Pidge and Lance a chastising glance when they stepped up beside him to watch, but kept quiet. Down below, Hunk was struggling, while Keith kept having to cover himself. Allura seemed to be in her element, blocking every shot the orbs sent her way with ease. The problem, as Lance saw it, was that she did too well. Allura blocked all the shots, including ones that Hunk and Keith could have blocked, leaving the defenses so open that they were having to overcompensate, focusing on covering the other and Allura to the detriment of their own safety. It didn't seem like a bad thing, but Lance could see a number of close calls for Keith and Hunk both.

“We really need these team building exercises,” Lance mused, rubbing his chin. He cast a sidelong glance at Pidge, who was watching the battle with a vested interest. “What do you think about Allura, Pidge?”

Pidge blinked, looking up at Lance in surprise. “Me? I think Allura's really good. But she's not good at working with others, is she?”

The two paladins watched as Allura nearly shoved Hunk out of the way to block a shot he could have easily stopped. Keith looked tense as he steadied Hunk, nearly getting blasted out of the exercise in the process.

“Which is why we're doing this training,” Lance looked over at Coran. “Maybe we should do the invisible maze next? Help Allura get used to trusting in us?”

“Allura has every bit of faith in you paladins.” Coran gave Lance scathing side-eye, before relenting with a heavy sigh. “But she can be rather headstrong, much like her father, King Alfor.”

Lance nodded, returning to watch the remaining group. He winced when Hunk took a hit, jumping up and into a perfect swan dive down the hole.

“Ha!” Pidge cackled, bouncing in place. “I win the bet!”

“Bet?” Coran leaned in close to Pidge, a sharp gleam in his eyes. “What bet was this?”

“Nothing!” Lance interrupted, placing a hand on Pidge's shoulder and giving them a pointed look. “We were just talking about how the rest of the exercise will go.”

“Ah.” Coran hummed, straightening up. “Very well then.”

Lance let out a relieved sigh, glad he had managed to avoid whatever horrific end would come out of Coran discovering gambling. Although, he mused, glancing at Coran out of the corner of his eye, it was possible that Coran was already all too familiar with gambling.

Returning his attention to the exercise, it was Keith and Allura, watching each other's backs. Or, Keith watching both his own back and Allura's while Allura kept overextending herself. Lance thought he saw a huge grin on her face, and wasn't sure how he felt that she knew considered this fun.

In any events, Keith looked overtaxed, taking on a duty that he shouldn't have. Allura, meanwhile, was beginning to show signs of strain. Given how the exercise usually went, Lance wasn't surprised. In the ideal, Keith and Allura were meant to cover for one another, trusting that the other had their back. Here, Allura was flat out ignoring Keith and reacting like he wasn't even there, leaving Keith to pick up the slack. It was unlike her, and the behavior was different from before, where Allura kept covering the others.

“Maybe have Keith lead her,” Lance offered, thinking aloud. “Get her to trust Keith a bit more.”

“You think so?” Pidge asked, raising their eyebrows. “Looks like They're both doing okay.”

Lance shook his head. He knew people, and he knew when someone had problems. Here, Allura had clear issue with Keith, although he couldn't tell why. Hadn't they already worked through her problem with Keith's Galra heritage? “No. Allura's watching her own back, leaving Keith in the dust.”

A stray shot got past Keith, hitting Allura square in the back. She stumbled, and Keith froze, taking a hit to the shoulder that sent him falling against Allura. The two fell down through the floor, ending the exercise.

“Wow,” Pidge said, as Coran recalled the orbs. “You called it perfectly.”

Lance preened, as Hunk entered the control booth. “Hey! I– oh, is it over already?”

“Don't worry, big guy,” Lance said, walking over to pat Hunk on the back. “We're just getting started on all this paladin bonding.”

* * *

“Turn to your right and take three steps that way.”

Keith's voice rang clearly through the training deck, and Allura's shoulders hunched with tension. Beside Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran were all watching the exercise intently.

“Should we be taking this much pleasure watching this?” Hunk asked, badly whispering to Pidge. “It feels like we shouldn't but this is too fun.”

“Just keep watching it, Hunk,” Pidge replied. “Keep watching and let's just enjoy what's happening.”

“I fail to see why it should be Keith leading me,” Allura grumbled as she obediently followed Keith's direction.

“It's a trust exercise, Allura,” Lance cut in, giving Coran an apologetic smile. “You're supposed to trust your teammate. Who is Keith.”

“And do you?” Allura asked, glaring up at the control booth. Keith glanced sharply at Lance, also curious about the answer.

“Absolutely.” If it had been before, Lance didn't know if he could have said it, it he would even have meant it. It was funny, how much he had changed since going to another reality. It was so strange, how much Lance categorized his life before the switch, and after. But even then, above it all, Lance wouldn't trade away a single moment of it. “Keith's a great fighter, our best pilot, and quick on his feet. Maybe he's too fast to rush in sometimes, but he's someone I trust to have my back. Just like you should too.”

Keith stared at Lance—crow, everyone stared at Lance. In response, he shrugged. Smiling, Lance nodded at Keith encouragingly.

“You got this. Lead Allura out of the maze.”

Keith nodded once, short and curt, before returning to leading Allura. His eyes tracked her location in the maze, and Lance stepped back to join the others. Coran beamed at him proudly.

“Spoken like a true Black Paladin,” Coran hummed. Lance, meanwhile, was thinking about Keith and Allura both. He wanted to touch base with them both, and make sure that they spoke about how Allura felt. Even if she was more trusting of the Blade, there was still much for them to do. “Next up, you and Pidge will take a run at the trusty invisible maze.”

Lance shared a look with Pidge, and together they burst into laughter.

* * *

“Alright, now that we've got some bonding time together, let's give forming Voltron a try.” Lance sat in Black, flying in the skies above Olkarion. The Castle was parked on the outskirts of the city, near where the teludav had been built.

“This is ridiculous.” Pidge's voice cut across the comms, a video screen popping up for them to glare at Lance. “Why are we doing this? I have a cool new bayard! I want to see what new stuff it can do!”

“Yeah!” Hunk's face popped up, stars in his eyes. “Like, I can already modulate my bayard into a full beam intensity or burst shots, so can Pidge do the same? Could you, like, modulate the intensity of your tazer?”

“I could increase it or adjust into a pulse,” Pidge mused, getting a determined gleam in their eyes. “Or even be able to grapple _and_ taze! Lance. Lance, I have to know. For _science_.”

Deep down, Lance wanted to know too. Mostly, he wanted to take some bags of food goo and see if Pidge could use their taser to make them explode from a distance.

But the heavy weight of responsibility meant that Lance couldn't condone it. Not during training, at least. It could be a team thing, a bonding exercise made of fun, like the other Lance did with his team.

“Not yet,” Lance said, filing away the idea. “Now, we're doing official Voltron business.”

“Flying in formation.” Keith's bland tone cut through the comms. “We're flying in formation. How is this official Voltron _anything_?”

“We're forming Voltron,” Allura said, too cheerful for anyone's liking. “Now, let us feel the bond!”

“Exactly!” Lance grinned, channeling Allura's enthusiasm. “Now come on team, it's time to form Voltron!”

“Yeah!” Hunk and Allura's cheer pulled Keith and Pidge in, and together, they flew through the skies above Olkarion.

And again.

And again.

By the fourth time, no one was feeling the enthusiasm.

“Okay, I know we were rough on our first day, but somehow this is _worse_.” Hunk's face popped up on a side screen, looking glumly into the distance. “What's so different here?”

“I don't even know,” Pidge replied, their own side screen appearing. Lance winced at the flat look they were giving him. He didn't know why they were failing, either. Black was connected well to him, but there weren't the familiar stirrings of the hurricane, the individual notes discordant echoes on the wind. Black snapped at Lance, a bird's sharp cry alongside buffeting winds, and Lance refocused out of his head and away from his still-growing bond. “I even know how to fly this time. Last time, it was my second time flying. Ever!”

“Same,” Hunk agreed, nodding. “We _actually_ know what we're all doing this time too! Even Allura, and this is also her second time flying a Lion.”

“Maybe it's because of Allura?” Keith asked, shrugging as his own video screen appeared. “And Lance too?”

“Hey!” Lance protested, and Keith bristled.

“I'm talking about this whole switch business!” Keith growled, pouting. “You and Allura are both in different Lions, so maybe that's our problem.”

“I am offended, Keith, and disappointed.” Lance shook his head. “I am a fantastic Black Paladin.”

“It cannot be me,” Allura said, too offended to maintain her cheerful demeanor. Lance nodded along, giving her encouraging nod. “We have already proven that we can form Voltron, I don't understand how this cannot work again.” Her tone turned thoughtful as she added, “Perhaps we need an incentive. Coran, how are the Castle's defenses?”

“No!” Lance yelped, diving out of formation and toward the Castle. “Nope! No no no! We are _not_ doing that again. I am done with the Castle trying to kill me. Coran, set up the mind meld devices, we're going back to the training room.”

“Not the mindholes again,” Pidge groaned.

* * *

Seated in a circle in the training room, Lance turned his mindhole device over in his hands. It had been a long time since Lance had had to use it, and he wondered how well this exercise would go down. It was clear that they needed to go back to basic, to get their minds in sync before making another try at forming Voltron. Glancing around the circle, Lance smiled at the ease Pidge had in putting on the device. They frowned, adjusting it to fit their head.

Hunk already had his snug atop his head, and he grinned happily at everyone else. Keith was setting his in place, sticking his tongue out slightly as he tried to get it to fit around his hair. Hunk gasped, reaching to both sides and gently slapping Pidge and Lance's arms.

“Kitty blep!” Hunk squeaked, not taking his eyes off of Keith. Keith froze, slowly locking gazes with Hunk, who had stars in his eyes. Quickly, his tongue vanished, replaced with a pout as Keith crossed his arms defensively. A light blush dusted his cheeks when turned puppy-dog eyes on him.

“What is a... kitty blep?” Allura asked, affixing her device atop her head. Plachu and Chulatt on either of her shoulders and giving what Lance assumed were helpful squeaks. Chuchule and Platt, meanwhile, were at Pidge's feet, happily dancing around.

“It's a stupid thing,” Keith grumbled.

“It's cute!” Hunk insisted. “It's where the tongue sticks out just a little, you know, like a little blep.”

Hunk gave a demonstration, and Lance covered his laughter as Keith's blush deepened. Pidge cracked up, falling backwards when Hunk turned his blep toward them.

“Just wait until you hear Keith sneeze,” Lance said, grinning. He slipped on his own mindhole device, before pulling Keith into a one-armed side hug. “He has kitty sneezes. It's adorable.”

“It's not!” Keith growled, trying to escape Lance's hug.

“It is, just accept it.” Lance gave Keith a squeeze before letting go. “Welcome to the family, Skywalker. Your life as a desert hermit is now over.”

Keith loosened his arms, glancing up at Lance curiously. Lance, in response, nodded encouragingly.

“...fine,” Keith sighed. “It's adorable. Now can we move on?”

“Yes,” Allura said, looking over at Lance. “I believe it is time.”

“Alright, people, you know the drill.” Lance closed his eyes, focusing on Black. The wind flowed through the back of his mind, distant and hesitant. Their connection was still new, still forming. It didn't matter how much Lance had bonded with Black in the other reality, what mattered was the person he was now, and how they were yet to become so close. Distantly, enough that Lance almost missed it amid the sound of the wind, he heard a parrot's cry. Frowning, Lance opted to ignore it, for now. “Focus on your Lion, and let the flow become the hurricane.”

“The what?” Hunk asked, causing Lance to crack open an eye. A small hologram of Black floated in front of him, and beyond it the others stared at Lance blankly.

“The hurricane,” Lance repeated. “You know. Voltron.”

“Voltron feels like a hurricane to you?” Keith asked, squinting at Lance intensely, like he was trying to figure something out.

“Well, yeah.” Lance shrugged. “I don't know what it feels like to you, but I get the sense of a hurricane. Just remember what it feels like to form Voltron and flow with your Lion.”

Keith shared a look with Allura, before nodding. “Alright.”

Lance kept his eyes open this time, letting the bond the mind meld devices opened guide him. There was probing, heavy and solid and inquisitive. Hunk, Lance realized, and he grinned. He felt the presence connect with Black, opening his eyes to watch as the little holographic Black Lion transformed and connected with the little holographic Yellow. Fire, burning bright, joined them as Keith began to connect. Echoes of Keith's mind rang through Lance's, reverberating bonds of family. For a brief instant, Red was replaced with an image of Keith's dad holding his knife, from back during the trials. Keith frowned, letting out a deep breath. Red slotted into place, and Voltron was half-formed in front of them.

Before Pidge, the hologram flickered between Green and the video feed of Matt. Lance reached out through the connection, giving Pidge a light nudge, not unlike a gentle shoulder bump. Pidge grumbled under their breath, but Green came into clear view, flying into place.

To Lance's other side, Allura's brow was furrowed. There was a clear image before her, a memory, of someone in low purple lighting, their skin purple and eyes a glowing, gleaming yellow. Lance would have thought it was a Galra, or even Lotor because of the silvery white hair, but for the robe the figure wore was different.

What stood out the most, however, were the distinctly Altean ears the figure had, or the red marks that struck along their face, bringing their cheekbones into sharp contrast.

“Allura?” Lance asked, looking beyond the memory to where Allura started to show signs of strain. The memory flashed across Lance's mind, clear as day, but too quick for him to know what he was looking at. “Hey, don't drag us all into a flashback. Focus on Blue.”

“I am _trying_ ,” Allura grunted. A bead of sweat formed on her brow, and Lance reached out, placing a grounding hand on her shoulder. The image flickered, becoming Blue, before changing back.

“Don't try to force it. You said yourself this is a mystic bond that can't be forced. Remember?” Lance shared a worried look with the others, feeling as much as seeing Hunk's worry and Keith's concern. Chulatt and Plachu squeaked in worry, pacing along Allura's shoulders. Platt and Chuchule were squeaking in Pidge's hands, causing Lance's frown to deepen. “Allura. Listen to me. Whatever is going on, whoever that is, they're not a problem right now.”

Keith reached out, hope of being a grounding presence like Lance echoing through the mind meld. Allura's eyes snapped open. She flung an arm out defensively, catching Keith in the chest and knocking his arm away. Keith skidded backwards along the floor, Allura's full strength sending him halfway across the room. Everyone watched, wide-eyed, as Allura stood.

“I am fine!” she snapped, before realizing what she'd done. Stepping back, Allura shook her head. She moved away, walking backward toward the door. She practically tore the mind meld device off of her head. “I – Keith, I apologize. I must go.”

“Allura!” Hunk called out, sharing a confused and concerned glance with Pidge. Together, they looked out at where Keith was picking himself up off the floor. Hunk moved, taking off his own device as he helped Keith to his feet. “Hey man. It's alright.”

Lance saw how Keith was frowning, saw the anger tensing his shoulders. “Keith? Are you alright?”

“No!” Keith growled. “I got tossed halfway across the room, what do you think?”

“I... think Allura's sorry for doing that,” Lance offered.

“She _did_ apologize,” Pidge added, making Lance wince at how weak it sounded. Glancing up at the control booth, Coran stared down at them, impassive.

“I think we're done for now,” Lance said, picking up his helmet. “Come on, guys. Time for another team bonding exercise.”

“Really?” Pidge stared at Lance in disbelief. “Because this one went down _so well_.”

“We're finding Allura,” Lance countered, unperturbed by Pidge's scathing sarcasm. “As a team. No getting out of this.”

“I want to get out of this,” Keith muttered. “You're not the one Allura hit.”

“Which is why you're double extra coming on this team bonding exercise.” Lance nodded as though it made sense. He turned toward the door, not looking back. “Come on, team! You too, Coran, we need you to tell us where Allura would go.”

“No need, Lance.” Coran sounded sad, his voice leaden with melancholy. “She will be on the holodeck. Where King Alfor's memory core once resided.”

* * *

True to Coran's word, Allura was there, seated within a projected field of delicate-looking flowers. Her helmet was at her side, the space mice all seated within, and she held one of the flowers on her hand. Without her father's memory, Allura looked lonely, seated within a ghost of the past. Lance couldn't imagine it felt much better, when Alfor's memory was still around to talk to her.

“Allura?” Lance spoke up, keeping his tone calm and careful. “We're coming in. I've got the whole team here with me.”

Behind him, Hunk carried Keith and Pidge into the room, a determined look on his face. Both Keith and Pidge were pouting, although Keith had resorted to his usual tactic of turning into dead weight, his limbs swinging loosely in the air.

“Yeah, he does,” Pidge blandly said, staring hard at Lance. “I could have walked in here on my own.”

“But would you have?” Lance countered, squinting at Pidge dubiously.

“Yes,” Pidge growled.

“Alright, Hunk, set them down,” Lance walked over, seating himself across from Allura. She avoided looking at him, shame and embarrassment clear on her face. “Don't worry, Allura, this is a judgment free zone. You panicked, and knocked Keith back. It happens to– well, not everybody. But it does happen.”

Keith, still within Hunk's grip, squawked in protest. “It does not!”

“It really does,” Hunk replied, setting Keith down beside Allura and gently patting him on the head. Keith went bright red, trying not to look like he liked the action. Lance grinned, thinking about how the other Keith was in a relationship with the other Hunk and Pidge both. He wondered if he could do anything to help them bond together, if their relationship would develop like it had in the other reality.

“But it should not have happened,” Allura insisted. She looked at Keith, the apology already clear before she spoke. “I am truly sorry for lashing out as I did. There are many things I must think about. Honerva, Lotor...” Allura shook her head. “I have learned from working alongside the Blade of Marmora that things are not often as clear as we would like them to be. And you must understand, the last time that an Altean and a Galra worked together, they were my father and Zarkon. They were Paladins. They were friends. And still Zarkon betrayed us.”

“I'm not Zarkon,” Keith said, mouth twisted in distaste. “And you're not your dad, either.”

“Yeah!” Hunk leaned forward, nodding enthusiastically. “We're... we're us! Whatever the old paladins were like, we're not them. And I don't know about your dad, because I only really met him when he was all corrupted and evil and trying to kill us, but...”

Hunk trailed off, lending a heavy weight to the air that wasn't there before.

“What Hunk's trying to say,” Lance continued, reaching out to pat Allura's hand, “is that you're not your dad, and none of us are like Zarkon. You can trust us to have your back, Allura. That's the whole thing about being the Blue Paladin. Inspiring trust and having faith, that's us Blue Paladins.”

Allura laughed, although it sounded wetter than usual. “I suppose you are right. My time spent as a leader has not lent itself well toward trusting others, even if I have already entrusted you with fighting alongside me in this war.”

“You fight well,” Keith said, looking like he wanted to reach out too. “I mean, you're a great fighter.”

“And you're a natural with Blue!” Pidge added. Lance smiled, and saw how they were all grouped together. His smile widened into an ear-splitting grin.

“Group hug!” Lance called out, pulling Keith and Allura up against each other and into a hug. “Come on, guys, get into this. We're having a quality team bonding moment.”

“I'm in!” Hunk cheered, scooping Pidge into his arms and into the hug. Allura smiled, wrapping her arms as far around everyone as she could, while Keith tentatively curled one arm around Lance.

In the back of his mind, Black roared, a falcon's cry that rumbled with thunder. They were coming together as a team, and ready to come together as Voltron.

“Alright, we'll keep up the hug for another dobosh and then let's head on down to our Lions.” Lance looked around at everyone's faces. “I think we're good to form Voltron now.”

“Really?” Keith asked, glancing from Lance to Allura. “Just like that?”

“And without any food goo fighting,” Pidge chuckled. “What else can we do instead?”

“I have a few ideas,” Lance replied, already loosening his hold. “Sadly, half of them require a pool, so that's out of the question.”

“Oh, a pool?” Allura scanned Lance's face. “There is one of those on the thirty-ninth floor.”

“Wait, we have a _pool_?” Lance gaped at Allura in shock. “There's been a pool in the Castle the entire time?”

“Uh, is it a pool like we know as a pool, or is it something different that's called a pool?” Keith asked, stepping away and looking at Allura warily. “Because apparently Jedi are real, but they're space hookers.”

“They're space what now?” Pidge said, staring at Keith in disbelief. “No. No way.”

“Okay, so a pool is this body of water,” Hunk began, leveling with Allura while Keith and Pidge discussed the true horrors of space. “That's contained in a hole. Like a cup, but large enough for all of us to fit in with a lot of room left over.”

Allura nodded. “That is a pool. And yes, the Castle has one.”

“There's a pool in the Castle,” Lance whispered, sinking to his knees in shock. “The whole time. I could have been perfecting my breast stroke this entire time. Why have I not known about this sooner?”

“What happened to forming Voltron?” Keith asked, poking Lance in the shoulder. “Are we still doing that?”

Lance shook himself clear of the spiraling thoughts, and got to his feet. “Right. Yeah. Voltron. Come on, team, it's time to form Voltron. For real this time.”

Allura's grin was infectious, and Lance was still grinning as they came together in the skies above Olkarion, Voltron forming once more.


	14. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like a puzzle, there's still some assembly.

Takashi didn't know whether to laugh or sigh at how long it took the team to actually fight the gladiator bots.

It wasn't that they weren't coming together, but that Allura kept using her whip to slice through each of the new gladiator bots that dropped down for them to fight, long before any of the others had a chance to work alongside her in a group attack. That it took them three tries before Takashi called a halt felt like too many.

“Okay, clearly this isn't working.” Takashi looked over the group, pointedly not looking at the last gladiator bot, cleaved in two from shoulder to hip, vanishing down below. “How about we try it again this time, except why don't multiple gladiator bots drop down. That way we can all fight. Together.”

Takashi locked his gazed with Allura, who nodded. Everyone gathered, bayards drawn, into a circle. Glancing up at the control booth, Takashi nodded at Coran.

Five gladiator bots dropped down, wielding different weapons: two were armed with staffs, another two had swords, and the last wielded tonfa. Hunk fired at one of the gladiators once they dropped down, but the gladiator spun their staff, deflecting the shot.

Keith and Takashi shared a glance before surging forward, drawing up their sword and lance. Together, they met the two gladiators armed with swords. Takashi parried the attack, getting a feel for the black bayard. Sparks flew as the gladiator's blade sliced along the side of the lance, making Takashi grit his teeth. The edge of the blade grew closer to his hands, and Takashi spun on his feet, twisting around as he willed his bayard to change. Light shifted, his lance glowing as it parried the weapon as Takashi shifted his grip to his left hand. Grunting, Takashi's bayard turned into a blaster.

Dropping low, Takashi saw Pidge's grapple slam into the chest of his gladiator, knocking it back and away. He glanced around the room, where Hunk had shifted back from the main fighting, using his cannon to fire at the remaining gladiators. One of the staff-wielding gladiators was gone, leaving four for them to defeat. Allura had the one with tonfa tightly wrapped around her whip, and flung it into the air, slamming it back into the floor hard enough to break the gladiator.

Keith held his own, but was flagging, unable to maintain his endurance against someone his equal. Hunk turned his attention to Keith's battle, while Allura turned her attention to the remaining staff-wielding gladiator.

Pidge slammed into the gladiator Takashi fought, kicking it in the head. Takashi raised his blaster, yelling for Pidge to move as he fired at the gladiator from close range. Even this close, Takashi's aim wasn't the best, hitting it in the side and in the shoulder. The gladiator, damaged, steadied its footing before rushing at Takashi and Pidge. Takashi felt his bayard shift again, and he barely gave it a glance as it shifted into a cutlass that he used to block the gladiator's swing.

“Pidge, taze it!” Takashi cried, using both hands to steady against the gladiator. Pidge surged forward, ramming their bayard back into the gladiator's chest. Takashi pulled back as the gladiator convulsed, then sliced high, cutting off the gladiator's head. It fell through the floor, defeated, and left... one gladiator bot, Takashi noted. The same one that Keith was fighting.

Keith, still, was holding his own, before the gladiator bot performed a deft spinning parry and sent Keith's arm swinging out wide. Keith stumbled back, out of the path of the gladiator's next swing. Hunk and Pidge both went after the gladiator, firing at it. Pidge's grapple struck the gladiator in the arm, lodging in the joint, while Hunk's shot knocked the gladiator back.

Takashi leapt forward, bayard shifting back into a lance. He stabbed the gladiator, slicing through it. The gladiator fell back, defeated.

Looking around the room, at the four of them gathered, Takashi never felt more like part of a team. Pidge and Hunk were at Keith's side, helping him back to his feet. Hunk was patting all over Keith and Takashi, checking for wounds. Takashi's gaze moved beyond his team, to Allura. She stood off to the side, bayard still in hand, seeming like an outsider.

The problem was that they needed to work together, all five of them, as a single team. It was more than clear that they could fight alongside Allura without fear of their attacks clashing with her whip, but all of them still needed to work on having each other's back.

“Hey, Coran,” Takashi called out, letting his bayard dematerialize. “How long can it take you to set up a defensive exercise?”

“Wait.” Hunk straightened up. “The orbs? Please, please tell me we're not doing the orbs.”

“Bring out the orbs!” Takashi yelled, grinning as he locked his gaze with Hunk.

“Nooooooooo,” Hunk wailed. Pidge and Keith shared a glance. Keith shrugged while Pidge winced in sympathy, before they both patted Hunk on the shoulder in consolation.

* * *

“Okay, for the record, I hate this exercise,” Hunk said, on Takashi's left. On Takashi's right, he had Keith, with Pidge on Hunk's other side and Allura between Keith and them to close out the circle. All five paladins had their shields out and raised, waiting for the exercise to start. “Like, _really_ hate this exercise.”

“We all hate this exercise, Hunk,” Keith said, rolling his eyes.

“Eyes up, everyone.” Takashi tensed as the orbs flew into the room, circling lazily around them. He felt the others stiffen, and put his concentration to the task at hand. The orbs picked up speed, although some of them stopped, floating in place.

Takashi reacted on instinct to block his first shot, and kept his focus ahead. He trusted his team to have his back.

Hunk cried out, knocking into Takashi as Allura swung wide, blocking a shot that Hunk easily could have stopped. The two slipped, and Takashi had to duck low to defend Hunk's lower half while he regained his footing. Hunk yelped, bouncing back when he was shot at, jumping into the hole that opened up beneath him.

Straightening up, Takashi went back to defending himself, the circle closing in. Allura was at his side now, and Takashi jostled when she enthusiastically went about blocking shots that were well within Takashi's own range.

“Focus on your own spot,” Takashi said, sparing a quick glance at Allura. “Trust that we've got your back.”

“You can say that again,” Pidge grunted, then squeaked. Takashi stumbled forward, shot from behind, and tripped into the hole that opened beneath him. He tumbled down, softly landing on the floor of the holding room.

Clambering to his feet, Takashi wasted no time moving toward the elevator, stopping when he heard Pidge's scream as they fell into the room as well.

“Quiznack!” Pidge cursed, rolling onto all fours. “I really thought I could last longer.” They spared an apologetic glance at Takashi. “Sorry, Shiro. I got caught by surprise and one slipped past me.”

“It's alright,” Takashi said, smiling softly. He gestured at the elevator. “Are you coming to watch how Keith and Allura are doing?”

“Oh, definitely.” Pidge scrambled to their feet, jogging up to Takashi's side as they boarded the elevator up to the control booth. Giving Takashi a sly glance, Pidge grinned and nudged him with their elbow. “Five GAC that Allura's next to take a tumble?”

“Twenty that it's Keith,” Takashi replied. “Allura's too intense when she blocks. Keith's going down next for sure.”

They stepped into the control booth, where Hunk had his face pressed up against the glass and Coran stood at attention, watching the exercise with badly-hidden interest.

“Hunk, back me up here,” Pidge announced, crawling up onto Hunk's back. “Shiro thinks that Keith is going to be the next one down.”

“What?” Hunk peeled his face off the glass, arms looping around Pidge's legs. He gave Pidge a shocked look, then stared over at Takashi, betrayed. “How could you say that about your own adopted brother?”

“You're such an only child, Hunk,” Pidge sighed, setting their chin on Hunk's shoulder. “Besides, that's not the important part. The important part is watching Keith win.”

Coran bristled. “The point of the exercise is not to win over another, but to work together in defense.” He paused. “But Allura is definitely winning.”

“I knew there were reasons I liked you, Coran,” Takashi said, moving to stand beside the Altean. He clapped Coran on the shoulder, ignoring the dirty looks Pidge and Hunk gave him, and turned his attention on Keith and Allura below.

They were back to back, shields held high as they blocked blast after blast. Takashi was deeply impressed. He had thought that Allura would still have issue working alongside Keith, considering his Galra heritage, but she was doing more than alright.

Allura blocked an attack that left Keith wide, and he struggled to cover himself, nearly getting hit. He stepped away, losing his place against Allura's back. Keith kept looking out for Allura, while she remained focused on defending herself. Takashi winced when Keith had to roll to avoid a shot from behind while still protecting Allura's back.

“Quiznack,” Takashi cursed, sparing a glance at Pidge. “I might just owe you that twenty GAC.”

“Shush!” Pidge waved a hand at Takashi, too engrossed in the exercise. “But yes, you do.”

Looking back down, Takashi saw how Allura kept moving off on her own, leaving Keith's back unguarded. The two circled, Keith defending himself beyond what was necessary and Allura defending herself almost exclusively. Takashi had hoped that the exercise would help Allura learn to work alongside and trust her fellow Paladins, but the lesson didn't seem to take.

“Let's try the invisible maze after this,” Takashi offered, and Coran hummed in thought. “Allura needs to learn to trust that we've got her back.”

Down below, Keith stumbled, barely dodging a shot that hit Allura square in the back. Takashi winced, hearing Allura cry out and stumble forward over the comms. Keith let out a curse, clambering to his feet only to take a hit to the side. Two holes opened up, dropping Keith and Allura down below, ending the exercise.

“Quiznack!” Coran cried, stamping his foot angrily. He froze, noticing everyone staring at him, and straightened up. Clearing his through and acting as though he hadn't done anything, Coran said, “Well, this is an unfortunate failure.”

Takashi glanced at Pidge and Hunk, who slumped in defeat.

“If it's worth anything,” Takashi offered, trying to cheer them up, “Keith did great during the exercise.”

“But Allura didn't,” Pidge said, while Hunk frowned.

“Yeah, shouldn't she be more, I don't know, trusting of us?” Hunk looked at Takashi, confusion clear on his face. “Or is this still about Galra Keith?”

“I...” Takashi glanced down at the training room, where the orbs vanished. His shoulders slumped. “I don't know. She seemed like she's used to working alone, which is rough because I really wanted this exercise to help her open up that she can trust us to have her back.”

Coran nodded, tapping at his little earpiece. “Alright, Keith, Allura, we've got an idea for the next exercise. Allura, can you return to the training room? And Keith, you can come join the rest of us here in the control booth.”

“I can do that,” Allura said. “Are we running the invisible maze?”

“We are,” Takashi cut in, opening the comms to everyone. “I wanted to make sure that we were good to go before trying to form Voltron outside of combat.”

“Right.” Keith grunted, and Takashi imagined him getting back to his feet. “And just who is leading Allura?”

“I was thinking either myself or you,” Takashi answered, listening closely for Allura's reaction. “Allura, what do you think?”

“Me?” Allura sounded shocked. “I... would prefer you, Shiro.”

“And Keith? How's Allura looking?” Takashi needed a visual in, and since the cameras didn't show the elevator or the waiting room, he had to make do.

“Like she doesn't want me leading her,” Keith dryly replied. “I'm getting major stink-eye.”

“Major what?” Allura cried, horrified. “ _Stink_ eye? I'll have you know that my eyes are many things, but they do not _stink_.”

“It's an earth expression,” Hunk explained, smiling fondly. “It just means a dirty look.”

“Ah.” Allura hummed, clearly not happy about the expression. “I still was not giving Keith any sort of eye, stinky or otherwise.”

“She was,” Keith quickly said. “You were. It involved the whole face.”

“Is there a reason you don't want Keith leading you through the maze?” Takashi asked, delicately probing the situation. He knew he wasn't the best at comforting, but he did well enough. He had been the Blue Paladin, after all.

“This isn't because he's Galra, is it?” Hunk blurted, and Pidge gently head-butted him. “Ow! Pidge, why?”

“It... may have a role,” Allura hesitantly replied. Takashi shared a look with Pidge and Hunk.

“How about we put a hold off on the invisible maze for a dobosh or two and the rest of us can meet you and Keith down in training room?” Takashi offered.

“Yes,” Allura said, while Coran nodded enthusiastically. “That sounds perfect.”

* * *

Everyone stood in the training room, circled around Allura. She looked off to the side, shame weighing heavily in her eyes.

“I admit, I am cautious about working alongside Keith, but it is not because of you!” Allura quickly assured Keith, glancing wide-eyed at him. “Merely, I cannot help but recall the last time an Altean and a Galra stood together as Paladins.”

“Zarkon,” Takashi grimly said.

“And my father,” Allura added. “They fought by each other's side for many pheebs. As you know, Zarkon was like family to me.”

“I'm not Zarkon,” Keith said, nose wrinkling in disgust. “I'm nothing like him.”

“And you're not like your dad,” Hunk said. “Granted, I never met him when he wasn't trying to murder all of us, but still. You're Allura.”

“What you've told us about your father doesn't sound very much like you,” Takashi said, giving her a reassuring smile. “We're all different from whoever the previous Paladins were. And besides, we know our history. There's no way we're going to repeat it.”

Allura glanced up at Takashi, reassured. “Thank you, Shiro. And Keith, I apologize for my actions. I should not have singled you out like I did.”

Keith shrugged, nonplussed. “Hey, I kind of understand where you're coming from. It's not like I wouldn't react the same way.”

“You did though,” Pidge said. “You ran away in the middle of the night when Zarkon was tracking us. You _literally_ singled yourself out.”

“It was a mistake,” Keith growled, annoyed. “And I'm already sorry for it, okay?”

“Still, it doesn't make us forget that you did that,” Hunk said, before pulling Keith into a hug. “You care about us so much! You're like a teddy bear, but one willing to stab people.”

“You're a real Gryffindor,” Pidge said, patting Keith on the shoulder. “Because you're far too stabby to be a Hufflepuff.”

“I'll explain later,” Takashi told Allura, sharing a pointed look with Pidge. They nodded, offering him a thumbs up. “Now, I think we've bonded more than enough. Coran! Let's cancel the invisible maze. We'll try forming Voltron.”

“Do or do not,” Pidge croaked, in their best impression of Yoda. “There is no try.”

* * *

Takashi couldn't stop the grin as he flew Black through the skies above Olkarion. This was Black's element, the freedom of the open air exhilarating. Takashi let himself fall into the bond, closing his eyes to see through Black's. He felt at peace, felt himself connected as much to the sky as he was to Black.

“So I know we didn't test it,” Pidge said, cutting through the silence, “but do you think what we can do with our bayards has changed along with their forms?”

“It's possible,” Takashi said, thinking about the black bayard. “I still don't know everything the black bayard can do.”

“Yeah, but that's _your_ bayard,” Pidge said. “I'm talking about _my_ bayard.”

“You want to taze something, don't you?” Hunk asked, and Takashi sighed, opening his eyes and blinking through the change from Black's eyes to his own. “I mean, I want to see it too. Like, I already know that I can modulate my cannon's blaster into a laser slicer.”

“So you think you could taze from a distance?” Keith wondered, curiosity heavy in his voice.

“If I can modulate the output for my bayard, I could _absolutely_ grapple and taze,” Pidge proudly stated. “We just need to test it.”

“On a gladiator bot!” Hunk hurriedly added. “Not that we wouldn't test it on somebody, but if we're testing the modulation of your taser then there's a chance that it could supercharge and cause the target to explode.”

“Oh we are _definitely_ testing Pidge's bayard on a gladiator bot!” Keith crowed.

“Or those sentry robots,” Allura offered, sounding gleefully thoughtful. “The next time we go on a mission it shouldn't be too much trouble to sneak a couple of their remains back to the Castle for testing.”

Takashi smiled, thinking about the possibilities involved. Pidge could really taze something from a distance, keeping themselves safe. Plus, he could structure the whole thing as a bonding exercise for them all.

“It's a great idea. For now, let's work on forming Voltron,” Takashi said. “Everyone get into position.”

Takashi set Black between Green and Red, the five Lions flying in formation. Black rumbled, an echo of distant thunder, a delight at all of them together again.

They flew in formation above Olkarion's main city, circling over the Castle of Lions. Takashi leaned into his growing connection with Black, feeling for the others.

Again, they circled over the Castle.

And again.

And again.

“Yeah, this isn't working,” Hunk declared, a video screen popping up of his unimpressed face. “This is like our first day. Except _worse_ , because I know how to fly this time. It's like we made the souffle, mixed it in all the right ways, but it just won't rise. We've ruined the souffle.”

“The souffle isn't ruined, Hunk,” Keith reassured, and Takashi had video screens of everyone pop up on either side of him. Everyone looked unimpressed, while Allura looked frustrated. “We just need to inject some filling into it. We can make it work.”

“Inject some filling– what does that even _mean_ , Keith?” Hunk gaped, affronted. “Have you never made a souffle? Do you even know what a souffle is?”

“I do!” Keith insisted. “...sort of. It's like a cake, but fluffier?”

“I...” Hunk shook his head, smiling. “I can't even find fault in that, because it's you.”

“Getting back on track, we're not forming Voltron,” Pidge said. “Is there something going on here?”

“We did form Voltron back on Thaceryx, though,” Allura said. “Is there something different between that time and now?”

“Well, we're not being shot at,” Keith offered.

“So we need an incentive to form Voltron,” Allura mused, before she got a terrifying gleam in her eyes. “Coran, how quickly can you activate the Castle's defenses?”

“Whoa, hey, no!” Takashi interrupted, halting Black and staring at Allura. “That didn't work the first time, and we're not going for a sequel.”

“Yeah. I _like_ when we're not being shot at.” Hunk shuddered. “Being shot at is the worst.”

“Besides, we've already had the Castle trying to kill us enough times,” Pidge added. “Maybe we could try to avoid that from happening again.”

“Even if it is Coran firing at us,” Keith finished.

“Yeah!” Hunk nodded, then paused. “I'm nodding.”

“We know. Video screen, remember?” Takashi smiled. “Let's head back to the Castle. We can try a mind meld exercise. Maybe we can figure things out from there.”

“Please,” Keith said. “I love flying a lot, but this is getting embarrassing. I think some of the Olkari are watching and recording us.”

“Oh man, not the infonet,” Pidge groaned. “I'm still figuring things out there. The search engine is evil.”

“There's space internet?” Takashi asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow. “Are there space memes?”

“Weren't we going back to the Castle?” Allura asked, staring blandly at everyone. “For training?”

“Yes, we were.” Takashi coughed, refocusing on the task at hand. “The space memes can wait. Coran, meet us back in the training room. And prepare the mind meld devices.”

* * *

They were in the training room, seated in a circle around each other. Takashi adjusted his own mind meld device, looking around at the others. Hunk was already set, and was helping Pidge and Keith both with theirs. Allura turned hers over in her hand, before carefully setting it atop her head.

“So, this is about as simple as we can get,” Takashi said, recalling what he could of the last time they'd all done the exercise. “We visualize our Lions, and then come together as Voltron.”

“And this time without probing into our mindholes.” Pidge said, staring pointedly at Hunk.

“What? I can't help it, I'm curious!” Hunk shrugged. “Do you know how many different parts of the Castle I've taken apart and rebuilt?”

“A good hundred, at least,” Allura flatly replied, giving Hunk a deadened look. “Many of which you should not have taken apart.”

“But I wanted to see how they worked!” Hunk defended.

“Focus,” Takashi cut in, looking at them both. “We're all leg buddies here.”

“Hey, me and Keith are buff arms,” Pidge countered. “And yes, we do lift.”

“Can we get back to the exercise,” Keith groaned. “The faster we finish with this, the faster we can get to movie night.”

“Yeah!” Pidge grinned. “Tonight we're going with a marathon of the best of How It's Made.”

Takashi looked at Hunk and Allura, who both nodded. Closing his eyes, he focused on Black, feeling the faint echoes of wind in the back of his mind as he visualized Black. He felt the others too, and peered at them before opening his eyes. A little hologram of Black floated before Takashi, just as a little Red Lion floated in front of Keith. A memory of Lance popped up in front of Hunk, and Takashi winced, Black flickering to his own memory of Lance, of discussing what his other self was like as a leader, came to the forefront. Takashi was the same person as his other self, and he drew on that assurance. In another universe, Takashi had always been the leader. He could do this.

Black reappeared before Takashi, while Yellow appeared before Hunk. Takashi leaned into his connection with Black, visualizing how Black became a part of Voltron. The little Black moved forward, transforming into Voltron's body, while Yellow and Red formed into Voltron's arm and leg. In front of Pidge, the video of Matt popped up, then the picture of them with Matt and Commander Holt together, before turning into the Green Lion. Takashi sent both Hunk and Pidge reassurance, a certainty that their lost family would be found.

Before Allura, there was a clear visualization of Blue, before glitching out into the video of Lotor in the arena, which morphed into a memory of a battle. Takashi watched with the others as the memory played out, showing someone else, with long white hair and striking red marks on her face and her ears were pointed, like an Altean's. The figure looked distressingly familiar to Takashi, in ways that he didn't want to explore. She was from his missing memories, somehow.

“Allura?” Takashi asked. He glanced at the others, worried. Sweat beaded on Allura's brow, the memory glitching to Blue and back again. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” Allura snapped, and the echo of shock reverberated across the rest of them. “Really, I am.”

“It's okay,” Takashi tried, sharing a worried glance with Pidge. Once more, the memory glitched to Blue before going back. “Hey, don't try to force it. You said yourself that it can't be forced. It's alright if you can't focus on Blue right now.”

“I can _do this_.” Allura grit her teeth, and again the figure flickered to Blue. This time, Blue fuzzed into a different memory, of King Alfor. Allura's brow furrowed, distress coming off of her in waves almost too painful to bear.

Keith reached for Allura's shoulder, a reassuring gesture. Allura's eyes snapped open, and she lashed out, knocking Keith's arm away and sending him onto his back, where he skidded several feet away. The little holographic Voltron fuzzed out, everyone's attention and concentration shot as they focused on Allura. Takashi felt Hunk reaching out, and reached out himself. Pidge was focused on Keith, who expressed only surprise and shock at the reaction.

Allura ripped the device off, standing. She looked horrified, one hand going up to cover her mouth.

“ I am sorry, I should not–” Allura cut herself off, backing away. After several paces she stopped. Glancing at Keith, she gave him an apologetic look. “Keith, I am truly sorry for this.”

Allura ran out of the room, leaving the others alone.

“Should... we go after her?” Hunk asked, looking at Takashi for guidance. “I feel like we should go after her.”

“We will,” Takashi said, pulling off his own device. The exercise was over. “We'll give Allura a dobosh or two to calm down before heading after her.”

“Yeah, and to let Allura know that I'm alright,” Keith said, getting to his feet. He gave Takashi a flat look. “That clearly was an Altean in her memory. Shiro, what do we do?”

“We...” Takashi glanced up at the control booth, where Coran's gaze was fixed on the door. “We'll give Allura time on that. We didn't press Coran for details, we shouldn't do the same to Allura. They'll both tell us in their own time. This is hard for them too.”

Keith nodded, taking off his own device while Pidge and Hunk took theirs off.

“So, I guess the exercise is over,” Pidge blandly said. “And now we know why we're not forming Voltron.”

“Yeah.” Keith nodded. “If things were going to get worse, I was prepared to start another food goo fight.”

“Really?” Hunk asked. “When we've got my pizza rolls? I was going to make calzones for dinner, Keith. Don't ruin them with a heavy coating of food goo.”

“I wasn't actually! It was just an idea.” Keith crossed his arms, pouting. “And not a very good one, now that I say it out loud.”

“So let's try something else,” Takashi said. “Let's find Allura. We spent all day doing things the Paladin-approved way, so how about we try bonding our way.” Turning his attention up to the control booth, Takashi said, “Coran, do you know where to find Allura?”

Coran snapped out of whatever rabbit hole his mind had wandered down, and he nodded. His voice came down loud and clear over the intercom. “Of course, Shiro. Allura will be in the holodeck. Where King Alfor's memory core once resided.”

* * *

When they found Allura, she sat alone in a field of Altean flowers, juniberries if Takashi remembered right. Her helmet sat by her side, and the space mice were all crowded at her feet, nearly hidden among the flowers. An empty breeze ran through the field, and Takashi felt Black's disapproving grumble, a sleeping bird's annoyed squawking, at the false wind.

“I was wrong to walk out,” Allura said, glancing over at the gathered Paladins. Coran waited just outside the door, watching them closely. “I apologize for that.”

“It's fine,” Takashi said. “You got overwhelmed. Thing's were already rough, we shouldn't have pushed like we did.”

“And I'm alright,” Keith added. “You didn't hurt me.”

“Still, it was unbecoming of a Paladin,” Allura said, turning her gaze out into the field. “I was unbecoming of a Paladin.”

“You're doing amazing,” Takashi said. “You're way ahead of the rest of us, for as long as you've been flying Blue. You were already a Paladin before you were chosen by Blue.”

“Then why could we not form Voltron?” Allura asked. “I could not concentrate. There are too many things running through my mind. Lotor, Honerva, Haggar... my father.” Allura shook her head. “We know too little of what has happened during the last ten kilopheebs. To know that there were things that my father did not tell me...”

“It's hard, losing family,” Keith said. “I know how it feels. Pidge does too. You're not alone in that.”

“Yeah!” Hunk said, moving to sit beside Allura. “You've got all of us now. And I know we haven't met your dad, like really met him, because that one time when he was trying to kill us it was kind of also not him...”

Hunk trailed off, and Takashi jumped in.

“What Hunk's trying to say is that even though you've lost your family, we can be your family too.” Takashi smiled, soft and sweet. He looked up at Keith, recalling how he'd said similar words years before. “If you'll let us be your family, then you can be ours too.”

Keith smiled, moving to sit at Allura's other side. “Yeah. So what if you're not the model of a Paladin. Neither are any of us, and we're doing great. You saw what we did to Zarkon.”

“And he had his Gundam!” Takashi added. Keith gave him a dark look, but he ignored it. “And we still beat him.”

“So what do you say, Allura?” Pidge asked, joining them in their makeshift circle. “Are we family?”

Allura smiled, her grin reaching her eyes. “I would be honored to call you, all of you, my family.”

Takashi laughed as Hunk pulled Allura into a hug, and joined in alongside Pidge and Keith. The space mice squeaked, hopping up onto everyone's shoulders, running around their heads and squeaking excitedly. In the back of his mind, Takashi heard the roar of thunder, Black's own roar echoing with the other Lions.

“Come on,” Takashi said, pulling out of the hug. His grin stretched from ear to ear. “I think we can form Voltron now.”

“And then movie night?” Pidge asked. “I want to show Coran how soda cans are made.”

“And then movie night,” Takashi agreed. “Although we'll need some new bonding exercises. Maybe some sports.”

“If we had a pool, I'd love to play some chicken,” Hunk said. “I am the king of pool chicken.”

“There actually is a pool, on the thirty-ninth floor.” Allura tilted her head. “Unless our understanding of what a pool is, is incompatible?”

“Wait. We have a pool?” Hunk stared at Allura, grabbing her by the shoulders as he locked gazes with her. “A body of water held in a hole large enough to fit all of us?”

“Yes.” Allura stared back warily. Hunk threw his hands up in the air in defeat.

“The whole time, we've had a pool.” Hunk shook his head, although he was smiling. “Well, now we have something we can surprise Lance with when he returns. He'll cry.”

Takashi laughed, and kept laughing all the way to Black. His good mood spread as Voltron came together over the skies of Olkarion, everyone slotting perfectly into place.


	15. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The coalition grows, as word of Voltron spreads.

Lance woke feeling refreshed and ready to form Voltron.

The elation trailed after him as he bounced into the kitchen. Pidge was steadfastly munching away at a bowl of food goo as the space mice watched, while Keith had a plate of what looked like scrambled eggs and was eating them like there was no tomorrow. Allura too had her own plate of eggs, but was eating them more sedately if just as voraciously. Hunk, meanwhile, was staring down a gorgeous plate of waffles.

“Something on your mind, Hunk?” Lance asked, getting his own bowl of food goo and seating himself between Allura and Keith. Hunk blinked, turning his attention away from his waffles to stare at Lance.

“Uh, maybe?” Hunk shrugged, digging his spork into his waffles. “Actually, yes. I'm worried. About this whole Lion swap thing, and what's going to happen when we find Shiro, huh? Is Allura going to step down from being a Paladin? Are you? I don't want to stop being leg buddies with my best bud! And what about Lotor? He's out there, and taking good people hostage, and that's almost as bad as Zarkon. Except it's a different kind of bad, because Lotor's traps are sneaky and if we hadn't been able to form Voltron then he would have won and–”

“Whoa, whoa, hold the phone!” Lance stared at Hunk in shock. “One thing at a time, Hunk. A lot of that is stuff we can think about when we find Shiro. I know we have to think about it at some point, but maybe not this quintant?”

Hunk nodded, although he didn't look as relaxed as Lance wanted.

“Okay, how about we talk about it sometime when it isn't breakfast then?” Lance stared at Hunk, then around the room. Pidge was still munching on their food goo, but Keith and Allura both were watching Lance and Hunk with vested interest.

“I think that would be a brilliant idea,” Allura said. “There are quite a few things I would like to discuss about our plans moving forward.”

Lance nodded, glancing at Keith and Pidge. They were still eating, but while Pidge looked to still be waking up Keith was watching with sharp eyes.

“Hunk has a point,” Keith said, glancing from Lance to Allura. “What's going to happen when Shiro's back? We know that Lance is leaving Black but what happens with Allura? Are you leaving Blue?”

“Hey!” Lance stared at Keith in disbelief. The space mice scampered away from Pidge, moving to plead at Lance. He offered them a spoonful of food goo, which Chulatt and Plachu eagerly took to. “It's been barely a full spicolian movement since we did the whole switch thing. Maybe we should hold this talk until _after_ Shiro returns. Weren't you listening when I just told Hunk the same thing?”

“Yes,” Keith replied. “But I still think we should talk about it.”

“Later,” Lance groaned, shoving a sporkful of food goo into his mouth. “I'm going in circles. Someone do a subject change.”

“I vote we talk about Kaltenecker,” Hunk offered. “Like, Kaltenecker is still here. I've been going down in my spare time, but it'd be nice if the people who actually own her go down too.”

“Oh.” Lance shared a surprised look with Pidge. “Yeah. Yeah, I should do that. Sorry, Hunk, things have just been apples and oranges around here. Kaltenecker needs milked, doesn't she?”

“You know how to milk her?” Pidge asked, blinking into awareness. “Is there anything you don't know how to do?”

“I'm not nearly so great at coding or mechanics like you and Hunk are,” Lance blandly replied. “Also I hate geology. Slept right through that part of science class.”

“Why is knowing how to milk a cow a skill?” Keith stared at Lance, brow furrowed in confusion. “You just... squeeze and the milk comes out. Like the food goo dispenser.”

“Okay, wow.” Lance covered his mouth, muffling his snickers. “Sorry, sorry. No offense, Skywalker, but that's really funny.”

“ _How_?” Keith grasped at air, exasperated.

“Let me put it this way,” Hunk said, blocking his waffles off from the wandering space mice. “I have had to milk Kaltenecker this entire time, and even though she's very chill I feel judged. She makes noises. Upset noises. And stares at me because I'm doing it wrong.”

“Oh, Hunk.” Lance gazed softly at Hunk. “I can do it from now on. I'm Cuban, it means, among other things, that I have farmhand skills. And milking is an art form that I am the king of. Kaltenecker will love me.”

“Sorry, but.” Allura paused, frowning in confusion. “Milking Kaltenecker... what does this mean?”

“It means we get milk, which I can use to make milkshakes, and cheese.” Hunk smiled. “Remember the pizza rolls I served? I made those using cheese I made.”

“Oh!” Allura brightened. “Those pizza rolls were lovely! I should love to try one of these milkshakes when you make them. And Coran too, he was rather taken with your pizza rolls.”

“Speaking of, where is Coran?” Pidge looked around the room suspiciously. “He's usually here.”

“Maybe he's sleeping,” Lance offered. “Guy's been working a lot, he has to get some rest at some point.”

“Does he though?” Hunk wondered, returning to his waffles. “Until he got the,” Hunk shuddered, “the slipperies, I thought he might be some kind of robot.”

“Coran is not some sort of robot,” Allura said, her frown deepening into annoyance, before flattening out into a thin, suspicious line. “Although, you have a point, Pidge. Coran is often present and working long before the rest of us.”

Lance looked around the room, a grin steadily growing over his face.

“Hey, what if we make this a team bonding exercise?” Lance's grin felt infectious, taking over Pidge and Allura. “We go off and find Coran. See what he does in his off time.”

“I don't know,” Hunk shared a dubious glance with Keith. “Should we really disturb Coran in his sleep?”

“His fault for sleeping in,” Pidge replied. “We're going in on this team bonding, Hunk.”

“Oh, I'm definitely coming along.” Hunk nodded matter-of-factly. “After we finish breakfast, because it's the most important meal of the day. Also, someone reasonable needs to go with you guys to keep you out of trouble.”

* * *

The search for Coran traversed half the castle, starting with his room. Hunk was enamored with Coran's room, with Keith following afterward and Pidge tagging along to the point where Lance shrugged at Allura before heading inside himself. The room seemed simple enough, but for the little details that drew everyone in. For Allura, it was the picture Coran had of himself and Alfor. Pidge and Hunk were looking over Coran's shelves at all his nick-knacks, specifically Coran's bust of himself. Keith held up Coran's stuffed klanmuirl (which also had Coran's mustache), staring at it thoughtfully, while Lance was enamored with Coran's own slippers (adorably a generic lion, but had Coran's own mustache added on).

Once they all admitted to Coran's lack of presence in his own room did the real search begin. Lance didn't know before that there were so many different bedrooms and ballrooms and training areas. One even looked perfect for him to use, with a nice view along one wall of the space outside. The pool, too, was checked, and Lance couldn't help gesturing wordlessly at where it sat on the ceiling.

“Okay, this is an issue,” Hunk said, frowning. He pointed at the pool. “Is this normal?”

“Yes.” Allura nodded, brow furrowing in concern. “This isn't a problem, is it?”

“No!” Hunk said, while Lance made strangled noises behind him. It just wasn't fair! The first time in months Lance was within walking distance of a pool and he couldn't reach it. Lance was absolutely calling a space party foul. Hunk shook his head. “No, no. We can work with this.”

“How about we figure this out later.” Keith hefted Lance up, staring at him blandly. “When Lance isn't having some kind of meltdown.”

They left the pool, and Lance managed to calm himself down by the time they reached the bridge.

Naturally, Coran was there. He was poring over the map, humming what sounded like a death metal tune. Lance shared a baffled look with Hunk, while Allura let out a put-upon sigh.

“Coran, have you been in here all quintant?” Allura asked. Coran started, straightening up and turning to smile at everyone.

“No, Princess.” Coran gestured at the map, and Lance stared at a little hologram of the planet they had fought Lotor over. “I awoke early and came here to update the maps. Thace left behind a number of notes on what our map needs updated on. Combining the current map of the known universe with ours takes some fine tuning, I'm afraid.”

“And what's that got to do with the planet where we fought Lotor?” Keith asked, frowning at the hologram.

“Thaceryx,” Coran said, glancing at the hologram warily. “From what we've observed, you're rather lucky that Lotor's trap didn't work. The planet itself is highly magnetic, interfering with scanners and communications. And the atmosphere is pure red xynthian nitrate!” Coran shuddered. “One spark and the whole place goes kaboom! And it's gloves off to woblay with you.”

“So it was a trap.” Keith winced, glancing down, and Lance nudged him.

“Cheer up, Skywalker. It's not like we actually got lured _into_ the planet's atmosphere.” Lance grinned, waiting for Keith to loosen up. His shoulders were still tense, and Lance snorted. “Besides, if we spent all our time worrying about what almost happened, then we wouldn't be able to think about the things that do happen.”

“Yeah!” Hunk nodded, sweeping Keith into a one-armed hug. “Like, do I think about all the times I almost died? Yes, I do. But I also think about all the people we're saving. We're helping them get their homes back, which is awesome. If we're too busy thinking about all the things that might have gone wrong, then how can we save people?”

“We can't,” Pidge flatly declared. “Because thinking about all the times we nearly died is for people with enough common sense not to get into the giant robot cat. And we all got into the giant robot cat.”

Keith's eyes widened, staring into the distance. “And in that moment, we were all Shinji.”

Lance coughed, choking on spit, while Pidge howled with laughter. Hunk nearly dropped Keith, he was laughing so hard. Keith grinned, far too pleased with himself, and Pidge gratefully patted him on the head when Hunk doubled over and took Keith with him. Allura and Coran shared a baffled look, and Lance shook his head.

“It's an Earth reference,” Lance explained. “Maybe one quintant we'll show you guys Evangelion. But anytime soon.”

The main console beeped, drawing everyone's attention as Coran went to his station.

“Incoming transmission,” Coran said. Lance felt his stomach drop down to somewhere in his pelvis, then forcibly sucked it back into place.

“Is it one of ours?” Lance asked. “A distress beacon?”

“No.” Coran pulled up the video on the main screen, Thace and Antok appearing. “It's the Blade.”

“Greetings.” Antok canted his head, Thace staring impassively. “Normally Kolivan would send this himself but there was a recent development. One of our operatives has come across a prison labor camp located in a contested area, in potential danger. All that is known is that the camp is the former research facility on physical augmentation.”

“Like Shiro's arm?” Keith asked, eyes sharp.

“And Sendak's,” Thace said, grimacing in distaste. “The witch Haggar had her druids work closely alongside the scientists developing the augmentations.”

“Druids?” Allura's voice was sharp, and cold enough to send chills dancing along Lance's spine. “Haggar has _druids_?”

Thace paused, sharing a worried look with Antok. He tilted his head. “Yes. Druids. You know of them?”

“Druids were an order of Altean alchemists,” Allura said. “They were skilled in the sciences and magics, visionaries and innovators. Few could claim the title.”

“King Alfor himself was one,” Coran added. Allura glanced at him in shock, and he gave her a sad smile. “It was a title he rarely used or wanted of himself.”

“The druids were also known as life-givers, and were the first Altean alchemists.” Allura shook her head, shoulders shaking in anger. “Half of what is known about them is legend.”

“Voltron is legend,” Thace pointed out. “We must reconsider what is and is not legend and history.”

“Even so,” Allura said, her voice cold, “that Zarkon– that _Haggar_ would corrupt such a distinguished and sacred Altean title for her own ends—we _must_ stop this.”

“Where's the labor camp?” Lance asked, stepping up closer to Allura. There was a lot of things they had to do, and lingering on what the empire did was not one of them. Especially not when they were about to save a planet full of people. It was better to channel that upset into something more positive, that they could do their job without a hitch. “We still have to save these people.”

Allura glanced at Lance, nodding, the tension in her shoulders loosening up.

“And why now?” Pidge asked. “If you already knew about this place before, why tell us about it _now_?”

“The planet is in the far edges of the Rauja system. It has been small and stable, providing no resources for the empire to mine. The most anyone has taken notice of it has been as a location for a medical facility, and for the labor camp.” Antok frowned, displeased. “But now two commanders, Ladnok and Trugg, are locked in battle for expanding their respective territories. If either were to come to blows over the labor camp, it is unlikely that the prisoners will survive the battle's fallout.”

“So we're evacuating?” Hunk frowned, looking unhappy about the situation.

“The planet itself is the fifth in the system,” Thace said. “The atmosphere is not hostile, so you need not worry.”

“About what?” Keith frowned. “Whether or not we can breathe the atmosphere hasn't stopped us before.”

“It means we don't have to worry about the people we're rescuing having to breathe when they come into the Castle,” Lance explained. He looked up at Antok and Thace. “It sounds simple enough. We just pop in, do a prison break, and pop out.”

“Remember to be wary of Ladnok and Trugg.” Antok canted his head. “Their exact whereabouts are unknown. They may already be there.”

“We'll be careful.” Lance nodded, ending the call. Allura turned away, still tense. Lance watched her step toward the dais, her back straight. “Allura? You might want to take a moment to cool your jets.”

“I am _fine_ ,” Allura snapped. She froze, before all the tension fell away. “No. No, I am not.”

“Is this about the druids?” Lance asked, glancing back at the others for backup. Pidge took a step back, pulling Keith with them, while Hunk was wide-eyed and hurriedly shaking his head. Keith stumbled, giving Pidge a light glare as he moved to stand alongside them.

“Yes.” Allura drew up to the dais, stopping before it. She turned back, looking over everyone. “The title of druid is sacred to Altea, and knowing that Haggar has spent the last ten kilopheebs corrupting it for her own gain—it is _insulting_.”

“I... can't say I understand this exact situation,” Lance said, thinking over how delicately to put it. “But there is a lot of Earth history that sounds really similar to this. It's awful, and me, and Hunk, and... actually pretty much everyone here knows how upsetting this is.” Lance paused. “Okay, we really need to sit you and Coran down for a brief history of all things Earth.”

“You... said that,” Allura said, glancing at Lance curiously. “The other you.”

“He did?” Lance blinked, surprised. “Of course he did. He's me, and we're exactly the same.”

Lance smiled, knowing how much he really was like the other Lance. Takashi was right all along.

“Ego boost,” Hunk coughed into his hand. Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged. “What? I had a cough.”

“Some cough,” Lance blandly said. Hunk looked unapologetic as he met Lance's gaze. Sighing, Lance clapped his hands, returning his attention to Allura. “Anyway! I'm guessing that you talked about Earth during the whole thing with Ulaz?”

“Yes.”

“Well, here's something new: rage can be helpful, but only when it's directed into doing good.” Lance glanced back at the others, focusing on Keith before returning to Allura. “Being angry is good, but not when it blinds you to what we should be doing.”

“Lance is right.” Keith stepped forward, dodging Pidge's grabbing hand and whispered ' _nooooooo_ ' to stand beside Lance. “Getting angry isn't helpful. I nearly dragged us into a trap because of it, and I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have done that.”

“What Keith's trying to say is, take a moment to cool your jets and remember what we're doing here.” Lance smiled, softly. “Taking out the empire isn't going to solve everything, but it's a big step in fixing things.”

“And we can start by taking out this labor camp.” Keith nodded at the main screen. Coran brought up the map, Rauja and its system blinking lazily.

Allura nodded, determination replacing her tension. “Of course. Coran, prepare the teludav.”

* * *

Rauja was a forested planet, and looked the part. One side was covered heavily in green, while the other side had twisting mountains extending out like roots. It was so many different kinds of beautiful, and reminded Lance of how awesome space could be.

“Guys, can I just say how awesome this is. Seriously, look at this planet.” Lance couldn't stop the grin from growing, couldn't keep himself from feeling incredibly proud at getting to see the universe like this. “This is amazing.”

“It is pretty cool,” Keith agreed, and Lance withheld the urge to fist pump. Lance's scanner pinged, and he glanced at it in concern.

“We've got a welcome party,” Pidge said. “Looks like half a dozen fighters inbound.”

“Track where they came from,” Lance commanded, dismissing the alert. “Odds are, wherever those fighters came from is where we're supposed to go. Coran, keep the Castle out of range. Once we've secured the area, come in for a landing. It's safer to have the prisoners go direct to the Castle instead of being shuttled by each of us.”

Lance sent Black forward, firing off the main laser. It hit one of the fighters dead on, exploding it. Whooping, Lance spotted Keith darting ahead, while the others joined up with him. The battle was over quickly, with each of them making quick work of the remaining fighters.

“I'm not reading any other fighters coming from the surface,” Pidge said. A video of them popped up, Pidge looking at Lance curiously. “What's our play here? Do a flyby and drop a BLIP?”

“No.” Lance shook his head. “If there were going to be any more, they would be out here already. We'll fly down. Plot our course down to the prison, Pidge. Once we've got the outside secure then Coran can come land.”

“Got it.” Pidge vanished, and soon after telemetry popped up on Black's screen, charting a course down at the edge of the mountains. Lance grinned, leading the descent. The attack hadn't been much, and there were hardly any fleet warships present. With half the universe in rebellion, the empire's forces had to be spreading thin.

Down below, the planet's surface looked beautiful. The green was a lush forest, vibrant with life. This close, Lance could see now a storm held within the mountains, a swirling vortex that sent water and electricity cascading down into the planet. A stray bolt of lightning launched out of the storm, striking one of the mountaintops with a thunderous boom that made the forest ripple with the shock wave. For an instant, the forest was glowing, radiant and luminous, before returning to its dormant state.

“Whoa,” Hunk breathed. “That is _awesome_. Really scary, but awesome.”

“Will it hurt us?” Keith asked. “You guys saw how the forest reacted. That can't be good.”

“All scans are coming up good,” Pidge replied. “Looking it over, the atmosphere seems a bit thinner than Earth sea level, but not by much. And that shockwave wasn't even that bad.”

“So it was a light breeze,” Allura said. “That is reassuring. I cannot imagine how we would evacuate the prison if the Castle of Lions could not land.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Lance spotted the structure of the prison, low and dug deep into a valley. A stone bulwark curved halfway around the prison, protecting it from any stray lightning.

“I've got eyes on the prison,” Lance said, redirecting Black toward it. “And nothing on any new fighters.”

“You were right.” Keith sounded almost impressed. “Let's secure it and get Coran down here.”

Lance pulled up scans of the place, frowning when all he got back were surface level. He almost wished he were back in Blue, before a grumble that sounded like a thunderstorm came from Black. Patting the controls and silently promising that Black was his only girl, Lance said, “Allura, can you and Blue get a more complete scan of the prison?”

“Of course.” Lance sat back as he landed Black outside the prison, going over the scans again. There were plenty of places for the Castle to land, of course, but he didn't spot any defenses. There weren't even any sentries coming up, or ion cannons. As much as Lance wanted to believe that things were going easy, he couldn't. The whole place felt worryingly empty.

“Lance?” Hunk asked. “Don't tell me you're feeling some kind of horror movie vibe here.”

“Yeah, please don't tell us,” Pidge added. “Except you have to tell us. Usually it's Hunk who gets that feeling.”

“It's probably nothing,” Lance said, sighing. “I'm just feeling tense. The mission's going smoothly. Hunk, you know what I'm talking about.”

“Oh. Yeah, you're right.” Lance could feel Hunk's nod, even over the comms. “Usually something bad happens by this point. Or something unexpected.”

“Hunk, don't worry about it.” A video screen popped up, showing Keith rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Chances are we'll get a good fight once we enter the prison. If I had to guess, the guards are holding the prisoners hostage.”

“The scan is complete,” Allura chimed in. “And I have to admit, the guards are all gathered in one spot, and the prisoners in another. There are actually two Galra present, though. They're standing in just inside the door alongside all the sentry guards. ”

“The wardens,” Lance groaned, recalling the warden of Beta Traz. Here was the battle they were about to get, the complication in the plan. He had to be thankful for small mercies, such as knowing in advance that they had a battle on their hands. “Alright, let's go in. Pidge, Keith, do your things. Abuse that Galra privilege Keith has and get these bay doors open. Coran, you there?”

“Ready and listening, Lance,” Coran replied.

“Fly the Castle here. Use the Lions signals to direct your approach.” Lance stood, his bayard materializing. “We'll be done by the time you get here.”

* * *

“We surrender!”

Lance froze, lowering his rifle to stare at the two Galra in disbelief. They were dressed like lowly officers, not highly ranked wardens, and Lance had to wonder if the empire was really that spread thin.

“Seriously?” He kept staring at them, and beyond at the rows of sentries, all... not glowing. Or moving. Or anything at all. They all appeared to be shut off. Lance stuck out a hand, stopping Keith and Allura from moving in. “You're surrendering? Just like that?”

“You're Voltron,” the one Galra said. They were a bit on the portly side, with a rounded face and what looked like the makings of a beard.

“You defeated Emperor Zarkon in battle,” the other Galra added. This one was smaller, almost like they were younger, with thick red fur curving over their head. “We knew we were quiznacked the moment we realized what our scanners were picking up.”

“Ilvek, shush!” the portly Galra hissed, although he kept his hands held up.

“It was _your_ idea to surrender, Scregg,” Ilvek growled.

“Yes, and now they know our names,” Scregg shot back. Ilvek froze, glancing warily at the Paladins.

“Is this a serious surrender?” Lance flatly asked, keeping his rifle half-raised. “Not some kind of trap? Because if it is, it sucks.”

The two Galra shared a look, before canting their heads in agreement.

“It's a surrender,” Ilvek said. “We agreed.”

Lance groaned, dropping his bayard down to his chest. Resisting the urge to drag his hand down his face, Lance stared at Ilvek and Scregg.

“So, what now?” Hunk asked, staring suspiciously at the two Galra. “This can't honestly be it.”

“I want to search your databases,” Pidge growled, holding their bayard up threateningly. Ilvek flinched, while Scregg glared back at Pidge. “I'm going to find my family, and you're going to help me.”

Lance could feel his eye start twitching, either out of annoyance or stress, he couldn't tell. “Alright, me and Pidge are going to go with Ilvek and Scregg back to their office. Hunk, you, Keith, and Allura make sure none of these sentries are going to come back online, then go to the prisoners and get them out to the Castle.”

“Got it!” Hunk and Allura drew their bayards, while Lance and Pidge guided Ilvek and Scregg deeper into the prison. The sounds of metal tearing echoed back behind them as the trio went to town destroying the sentries.

“Did you really have to do that?” Ilvek whined, because of course he did, because Lance's life wasn't strange enough. “We could have used those sentry bots.”

“For what? You're about to be out of a job.” Pidge snorted. “If anything, we're doing you a service.”

“Look, either we destroy these sentries or Ladnok or Trugg do when they come after this place.”

“Commanders Ladnok and Trugg are coming?” Scregg squeaked, sounding far too fearful for Lance's enjoyment. “But what about Commander Morvok?”

Lance and Pidge shared a look. Just how much did these two not know?

“He's... no longer a part of the empire.” Lance didn't know how better to delicately state it.

“Morvok's dead. He's been dead for an entire movement.” Pidge stopped before the door to the warden's office. They stared at Ilvek and Scregg, who were standing stock-still, frozen in place and paling. “It wasn't us. We don't know who it was. Now open this door before I taze one of you to do it.”

“Pidge, be nice,” Lance chided. “They surrendered, and actually seem to mean it. The least we can do is accept that they're not going to harm us, so we shouldn't hurt them.”

Pidge looked dubious, giving one last glance at Ilvek and Scregg before nodding in acceptance. Scregg came forward, placing his palm against the pad and opening the door.

“Lance, Pidge, the sentries are down,” Allura reported over the comms. “Coran has landed as well. Hunk and I are heading to free the prisoners, while Keith has volunteered to keep watch over the doors.”

“Alright. We're in the warden's office. Coran, keep the scans up. The moment something pops up, let us know.” Lance waited for Ilvek and Scregg to enter alongside Pidge before following. There were still a million things that could go wrong, and Lance didn't want to believe that Ilvek and Scregg were willing to betray them. Their surrender was too genuine, their reactions too honest.

Lance saw the warden's office, and it looked heavily lived in. Food wrappers scattered around the room, while various posters littered the wall. Some of the posters were of various Galra in poses, promoting some kind of movie. Others...

“What the quiznack?” Lance stared at the posters of Zarkon. He was posing in most of them, arms on his hips and cap dramatically flowing behind him, like he was some kind of hero. Pointing at the posters in disbelief, Lance turned to Pidge. “Are you seeing these?”

Pidge ignored everything in the office, heading directly to the console. “No time, Lance. I need to move fast if I want to find Dad.”

“They're motivational posters,” Scregg growled. He glared at Lance, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. “They're to remind us all the good the empire can do.”

Lance froze, staring in shock. At the console, Pidge stiffened.

“The good?” Pidge hissed, glaring at Scregg. “If the empire were any _good_ then we wouldn't be here. My family wouldn't be your prisoners.”

“”If they're in our prison then–” Scregg stopped when Ilvek covered his mouth.

“Scregg, why don't we try not to make ourselves even more quiznacked than we already are.” Ilvek gave him a forced smile. “Remember that the alternative is fighting Voltron.”

“Like helping them is so much better,” Scregg grumbled. He flatly stared at the console, where Pidge was setting up a search, pictures of the crew of the Kerberos mission. Lance spotted Shiro, and felt his heart clench in longing. Scregg, meanwhile, perked up at the picture of Shiro. “Is that the arena champion?”

“No way!” Ilvek went and peered over Pidge's shoulder. “It is!”

“Hey, unless you're going to help, back away from them.” Lance kept half an eye on Scregg as he gestured at Ilvek to step back. His bayard remained at his side,

“If he's the one you're searching for, then I can.” Ilvek gestured at the console, pulling up a keyboard. After a moment, a new screen appeared, a picture of Shiro on it. Lance stared in shock, at Shiro without his scar or his white forelock. He knew that Shiro wasn't that much older than himself, knew that it had been well over a year since he last saw any picture of Shiro from before Kerberos, but... Shiro looked his age. “There! The arena champion, prisoner 117-9875.”

“And the others?” Pidge demanded, elbowing Ilvek in the belly. They began furiously typing, little cartoonish Pidge heads appearing as the info on Shiro was copied down. “If there's a system here, then I can use it to find Matt and Dad.” Pidge looked up at Lance. “And Shiro too.”

Lance's gaze met Pidge's. They had a lead, even if it wasn't much of one. Chances were that any info on Shiro didn't relate to where he was currently being kept. Even with Zarkon out of commission, Lance wasn't sure if there would be open info on where a Paladin of Voltron was being held captive. “Do it.”

“Already doing it.” Pidge gestured at the screens, where the copy of Shiro's data was happening while two others were running for Matt and Commander Holt. “Once we know where they kept Matt and where they're keeping Dad, then we can narrow our search.”

“And with Shiro, we can know where to look,” Lance pointed out. “We'll know where he's being held.”

Pidge grinned. Things were finally looking up. “We can save my dad, find Matt, and free Shiro.”

The console pinged a result for Matt, and Pidge began to download. Shiro's data was nearing completion, and Lance couldn't take his eyes off the picture of him. Another ping happened, for Commander Holt, and Pidge gasped.

“Paladins!” Coran cried out. “There's a fleet warship spotted entering the system! And another! There are multiple fleet warships incoming!”

Lance's blood froze. He briefly locked eyes with Pidge, while Ilvek and Scregg yelped.

“It's them,” Scregg whispered, horrified. “Commanders Ladnok and Trugg.”

“Allura, Hunk, Keith!” Lance barked, raising his bayard. “How are we on evacuating the prisoners?”

“The last ones are headed to the Castle,” Allura replied. “The prison is empty.”

“Then let's go. Get to your Lions.” Lance paused at the stricken look on Pidge's face. “Pidge, I'm sorry. I wish we could stay, but we can't.”

“Can we hold for two more doboshes?” Pidge asked, practically snarling at him. “I'm almost done.”

Lance wanted to say yes. He wanted to say that they could hold off Ladnok and Trugg both. But he couldn't. Coran was shouting about there being over a dozen fleet warships, while Allura and Keith were arguing about whether to fight or defend the Castle. This wasn't a situation where they could afford to have any one of them stay back.

“There's no time,” Lance said, wishing he could say otherwise. “Pidge we need to go.”

Pidge gave one last look at the console, shaking their head in frustration as they stepped away.

Ilvek slammed into Pidge, while Scregg pulled a blaster out of a pile of discarded armor, pointing it at Lance.

“Sorry, Paladins,” Ilvek said, holding Pidge against his chest. “But if Ladnok and Trugg are here, then the only way out is if we have at least one of you captive.”

“I doubt that,” Pidge said, slamming their bayard into Ilvek's leg. He spasmed, letting out a strangled scream as Pidge tazed him. Lance felt his bayard shift, taking on a defensive shield as Scregg fired on him. Lunging forward, Lance activated his jets for extra boost. He slammed his shield into Scregg, knocking him into the wall. As Scregg went down, he fired off a wild shot, destroying the console in a shower of sparks. Pidge got loose from Ilvek, dropping down and away as he fell to the floor.

“Sorry,” Lance said, shrugging helplessly. He looked over the two downed Galra. “But hey! You put up a pretty decent fight.”

“Let's go.” Pidge stormed past him, the console sparking one last time before going dark.

* * *

They came out of the prison to heavy fire. The Castle's particle barrier was up, but it was still grounded. The sky high above was full of fleet warships and dozens of fighters. Yellow, Red, and Blue were streaks as they darted throughout the battlefield. Fire and shrapnel rained down around Lance as he entered Black and took to the air, Pidge not far behind in Green.

Black soared through the air beautifully, and Lance growled alongside her as they fired at several fighters that had focused on the Castle.

“Stick close to the Castle. We need to clear the area so Coran and get away from here.” Lance summoned Black's jawblade, slicing forward and through a pair of fighters. High above, several of the fleet warships were firing on each other as much as they were firing down at the surface. Lance jerked Black to dodge an ion blast, and used his jawblade and claws to tear into the nearest fleet warship.

Off to the side, Lance spotted Hunk and Pidge together, while Keith and Allura were darting through the oncoming fighters, freezing and melting large swaths of fighters. Hunk and Pidge tag-teamed on the other fighters, using their combined strength to lure fighters into range of Hunk's claws and Pidge's own lasers. Two more ion blasts shot out, missing all the Lions—and hitting the Castle's particle barrier dead on.

“Our particle barrier is losing integrity!” Coran cried out. “We need to retreat soon or else it will fall.”

Lance growled, moving with Black to rip a pair of fighters in half. “This isn't enough. Guys, come together on me. We need to form Voltron.”

“Really?” Pidge asked. “You couldn't think of a bigger distraction, could you, Lance?”

“He is right!” Allura shot down, flying beside Lance as they both shot at incoming fighters. “So long as these ion cannons are firing at the Castle, Coran cannot fly out of the system.”

Hunk, Keith, and Pidge all converged around Lance, and he leaned into the connection.

They formed Voltron in record time, exploding into one of the fleet warships and ripping it in half. They grabbed the ion cannon, using it as a club to slam into another fleet warship. Lasers shot out, carving into and through the fleet warship.

“Form sword!” Lance yelled, the hurricane drawing on everything to destroy fighters with ease. Lasers blasted all around them, from fighters and fleet warships alike, all focused on Voltron. In a flash of light, Voltron's sword formed, and they sliced through dozens of fighters and another fleet warship. “Hunk, Allura, full boost! Take us closer to that storm.”

“You want to go _closer_ to the storm?” Hunk shrieked in disbelief.

“Not us,” Lance said, grinning. “We're grabbing one of these fleet warships and pushing it in. That should be a big enough distraction away from the Castle.”

“Okay, I was wrong,” Pidge said, a video screen popping up of them looking impressed. “You _could_ think of a bigger distraction.”

Voltron moved, slicing through over a dozen fighters before digging the sword deep into one of the fleet warships. Hunk and Allura pulled through, thrusters at full blast. The warship moved slowly, before gaining speed as Voltron pushed it. The fleet warship cracked against one of the mountains, and Lance's eyes widened as lightning crackled all along the surface.

“Reverse thrust!” Lance commanded, pulled back. “Pidge, tell me you're seeing what I'm seeing.”

“The entire mountain system is highly charged,” Pidge said, awestruck. “It's like a faraday cage, holding the storm in place and charging it so it's always happening. I don't know how we didn't notice it before.”

Lightning struck out in a snap of light, hitting the fleet warship in an explosion of white. Lance lost visual, and had to squeeze his eyes tight. Black rumbled, and Lance peeked open an eye, half expecting to be blinded. Instead, his visuals were tinted, filtering out the brightest of the light. Down below, the shattered remains of the fleet warship were pulled into the storm.

“It worked!” Coran cried out, joyous. “All the enemy fighters and warships are converging on you. Moving the Castle away from the planet now.”

“Good.” Lance turned, directing the hurricane away from Rauja's storm. He felt everyone else's awe, faintly, and in the distance an echo of someone else. Shiro. Lance felt his stomach twist at that, and glanced at the scanners, in case they picked up Shiro's biosignature. Nothing pinged on the radar.

Voltron faced the oncoming fleet warships, backlit by the fading light of the storm's strike. Behind them, ignored by everyone, the Castle left the atmosphere, on its way out of the system.

“We did it!” Hunk cheered, before it died a swift and merciless death as his words sank in. “Wait. We did it. Now they're all focused on us.”

“Keep it together, Hunk,” Lance said. “Keith, let's put away the sword. Hunk, bring out the cannon. It won't take them all out but it's more than enough to keep them from following us.”

“We're retreating?” Keith's disbelief cut through the tension. “Not fighting?”

“Our focus here is on the Castle and defending the prisoners.” Lance's lips thinned. “We're returning to the Castle and getting out of here.”

“We'll fight these Commanders on another quintant,” Allura agreed.

“Alright. You're right.” Voltron's sword vanished in a burst of light, replaced shortly after with Hunk's cannon. Lance got a second feed of the targeting system Hunk had, seeing the dozens of fighters and three of the remaining half-dozen fleet warships being targeted.

Lance watched triumphantly as they fired, clearing a massive swath, large enough for Voltron to fly through. Dispelling the shoulder cannon, Hunk and Allura both had full thrust as Voltron flew toward the Castle, leaving Ladnok and Trugg and their forces behind in the skies above Rauja.

Voltron broke apart as they approached the Castle, the hurricane coming apart and leaving Lance alone with Black. A questioning rumble, a soft breeze nudging him, full of curiosity. Reaching up, he clicked to mute the comms.

“So,” he breathed, leaning back into the chair. “You heard him too.”

Black rumbled in the affirmative, the wind picking up.

“Right.” Lance smiled. “Well, don't worry. We've got the scanners already set to pick up any stray Black Paladins. Don't worry, beautiful. He's out there. We know that now.”

* * *

Landing on Olkarion, Lance and the others entered the drop ship, standing with all the prisoners. They had expressed gratitude, and wanted nothing more than to have their own planets and systems freed from the empire's rule. Until then, it was too dangerous for them to return to their homes.

“Don't worry,” Allura said, reassuring the refugees once more as the doors opened to reveal Olkarion's flourishing city. “I am sure that the Olkari will be more than thrilled with hosting you.”

Lance spotted Ryner in the distance, approaching with a host of Olkari to look over the refugees. They had sent word ahead that medics would be required, as several of the refugees were malnourished, and chosen to hold the conversation about opening a refugee camp when they were face to face with Ryner.

“Hello, Paladins!” Ryner greeted, smiling. She gestured at the gathered medics, watching as the refugees were escorted out of the drop ship. “It is good to see your safe return.”

“Ryner,” Allura said. “I was hoping we could discuss accommodations for these refugees.”

“Accommodations?” Ryner's eyes widened. “If this is about the medical care, do not worry. Olkarion's finest will look over them until they can be returned to their homes.”

“About that,” Lance cut in, smiling sheepishly. “It turns out that most of their home planets are still under the empire's rule, so taking them back there would be a bit of an issue.”

“We were hoping that you would open your planet to temporarily housing the refugees we find in the war,” Allura said. “The coalition has not discussed this yet, I know, but if there is anything we can do to convince you.”

“Nonsense.” Ryner laughed. “Our planet is saved because of you. Olkarion is flourishing. If temporary housing is what is needed, then Olkarion's skies are open. But we would need resources. Our food supplies are not in abundance, nor do we have the raw materials necessary to craft suitable housing.”

“Which is where we can talk to the Coalition,” Lance said, gesturing at himself and Allura. “This is what they agreed to.”

“And we as well,” Ryner said, looking out at the refugees thoughtfully. “Olkarion has already aided Voltron so much in this war. We would be honored to join this Coalition.”

“Of course.” Allura bowed, while Lance couldn't stop grinning. It was a small step forward, a number of small steps forward, but the universe was growing closer toward peace.

“You'll need to consider some defenses, though.” Lance's grin faded as he recalled Lotor's gambit with Puig. “There's someone new leading the empire.”

“Lotor.” Ryner's mouth twisted in disgust. “We caught the transmission the same as the rest of the known universe.”

“He's already held a Coalition planet hostage,” Lance explained. “We don't want him to do it again. Make sure to defend yourself if it comes to that.”

“Not to worry,” Ryner said, laughing. “Olkarion is skilled in defending itself.” Her laughter trailed off. “Many of my people have noticed the return of five Lions flying, and of Voltron in the skies. Has something changed?”

Lance and Allura shared a glance. While it hadn't been common knowledge that Shiro was missing, it still had yet to spread that there was a new lineup in the Paladins.

“Yes,” Allura finally said. “Until we find Shiro, it was decided that Lance would lead Voltron, and I would pilot the Blue Lion.”

“You?” Ryner gave Allura a quick appraisal, nodding. “You make a fine leader already, Princess Allura. I am sure that you will make an equally fine Paladin. Now, shall we call up these coalition leaders and explain Olkarion's inclusion and what we will need?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” Allura stumbled over the response, before leading the way back to the drop ship. Lance followed after, giving one last glance at the refugees. Most of them would want to stay, while a few would want to join the fighting themselves. The war was far from won, but strides were being made every quintant. Lotor's own command was crumbling, as well, with his own commanders fighting amongst one another for resources. The coalition was gaining momentum, while the empire fell apart.

One of the refugees laughed, the sound carrying far, and Lance smiled, seeing the impact that Voltron had on the universe. Everything may have changed, but most of it was for the better. He could only hope that he was living up to his other self's pride in him.


	16. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As we move forward, the past has ways of catching up to us.

Takashi woke alone. Again.

He wanted to hate that he was getting used to sleeping alone, wanted to hate that he could sleep through the night without the sensation of Lance pressed up against him, but he couldn't. It was good, that he could get a full night's sleep on his own. It meant that he was doing better, was able to get the rest that Lance had wanted him to get when they had first started.

And still he missed Lance. Still he wanted to wake snuggled up to Lance, wrapped up all around each other.

But there was hope still, Takashi knew. Lance was out there, still connected to Black. He'd heard Lance, felt an echo of him through his growing connection to Black. Lance was out there, searching for his team—his family—as much as they were searching for him.

Takashi held that thought close to his heart, as he entered the kitchen. Hunk and Allura were setting trays of pancakes at the table, Keith and Pidge watching with sporks in hand. To the side, the space mice stood in a line, waiting dutifully.

“So what do these taste like?” Takashi asked, settling in across from Keith. Using his own spork, Takashi filled a plate with several pancakes. They were a nice blue color and looked pleasantly fluffy.

“Berry.” Keith poked at his own pancakes, carefully cutting into one. It came apart like a fine gelatin.

“Safe bet.” Pidge shook their head. “I'm not taking that.”

“Yeah, but what kind of berry?” Takashi cut into his own pancakes. “Sweet? Sour?”

“Strawberry.” Keith hummed around a full mouth, chewing thoughtfully. “It tastes like strawberry, with something else.”

Takashi took his own bite, humming in surprise. “Is that... mango? Strawberry and mango?”

“Yep!” Hunk grinned. “There's this fruit that grows on Xylax that looks like a blue starburst and all the flesh is on the outside with this black seed thing inside it. I'm still not sure if the seed is edible or not, but the fruit tastes like mango and strawberry. Once we have enough milk from Porter, I am _so_ making smoothies with this stuff.”

“Milkshakes sound fantastic.” Takashi grinned around a bite of pancake. “Don't you have enough milk, though? You made the cheese for the pizza rolls.”

“Yeah, but that was on an as-needed basis.” Hunk gave Takashi a flat look. “Milking Porter is hard, dude. She judges you. She stares into your soul and she _judges you_.”

Pidge patted Hunk's arm in solidarity. “She knows you're just doing your best.”

“Are those pizza rolls the same ones that you made for the coalition gathering, Hunk?” Allura asked, carefully cutting small bits of pancake for the space mice. “They were incredible. Coran in particular loved them.”

Takashi shared a look with Keith, the same knowing look reflected back at him. With the creation of the pizza rolls, it was only a matter of time before Hunk had the resources necessary to recreate pizza.

“Speaking of Coran, where is he?” Pidge glanced around the room. “Usually he's around, or helping Hunk.”

“I crossed paths with Coran earlier,” Allura said. “He mentioned making adjustments to our stellar map.”

“Well, we can head up to the bridge after breakfast and see what he's changing.” Takashi shrugged. “And it'll help us get a start to our quintant.”

“We do need to talk about what we're doing now that five Lions are back in the game.” Keith jabbed his spork at Takashi. “Are we still chasing after Lotor? What's our plan here?”

“I was hoping to get back to answering distress signals,” Takashi replied. “Getting back to our normal duties.”

“Saving planets, defending the universe, and overall kicking Galra butt?” Hunk nodded. “I'm good with that.”

“And it allows us to build the coalition,” Allura added, a thoughtful smile growing on her face. “Perhaps even it can allow us to craft a more solid warfront.”

“What warfront?” Pidge snorted. “It's space. There's liberating planets from the empire one by one.”

“Well, there's all sorts of warfronts. Like supply routes,” Takashi pointed out. “We can use your Galra tracker and the information from the Blade to mark down planets and systems important to the empire.”

“Like that galactic hub.” Keith nodded.

“Exactly.” Takashi grinned. He went back to his pancakes munching happily. With a plan in place, the coalition can only grow. “And hey, maybe we'll even come across those rebels that Matt's with.”

Pidge froze, staring at Takashi wide-eyed before grinning wide. “You're right. We can find Matt, and then my dad.”

“And Lance?” Hunk asked, looking from Pidge to Takashi worriedly.

“He'll turn up somewhere between there.” Keith rolled his eyes. “Lance is always in the last place you expect. He's probably already escaped and with the rebels.”

Now there was an idea. It was one of several that Takashi indulged in, late at night. The idea that Lance was already out there, free from the empire, fighting to get back to Takashi and the rest of his family.

“We'll go up to the bridge after breakfast,” Takashi said, giving Hunk and Keith both a reassuring smile. “That way we can get started. If Lance really is out there, we shouldn't keep him waiting.”

* * *

They entered the bridge to find Coran in the middle of the map, zipping from system to system and pulling up various planets. He added bits and pieces of information, typing at a speed that looked like a blur to Takashi's eyes. Upon spotting the paladins, Coran stopped halfway through filling in a familiar planet.

“Ah! Hello there.” Coran glanced back at the half-finished entry, taking a moment to fill it in. “I've been spending the past few vargas updating our map. Thace was a large help but left behind a number of notes. Combining the modern map of the known universe with the one the Castle has on file requires some fine tuning.”

“Is this because of Thaceryx?” Pidge asked. “Because we're a spicolian movement too late for that one.”

“In small part,” Coran conceded. “But! By updating our map it means that we can avoid any incidents like what happened with Thaceryx.”

“Good, good.” Hunk nodded. “Because it means that now there's less chances of us almost dying. I like it when we don't almost die.” Hunk paused. “Wait. That came out wrong.”

“No, no, I understand perfectly.” Takashi grinned. “You like the times we actually die.”

“No!” Hunk crossed his arms. “I like the times when, instead of almost dying, there is no threat of dying!”

“I'm just joshing, Hunk.” Takashi chuckled. “I know what you meant.”

“We all did.” Keith set his hands on Hunk's shoulders. “Don't worry about what almost happened. We lived through it all.”

“Plus, worrying about stuff like all those times we almost died is for reasonable people.” Pidge shook their head. “It's too late for us. If we were reasonable people, then we wouldn't have walked into the giant robot cat.”

“We got in the giant robot cat, Hunk.” Keith stared down Hunk. “We are the meme.”

“The myth, the legend,” Pidge added under their breath. Takashi snorted, bending over. He gripped the nearest chair—Lance's—and used it to steady himself as he collapsed in laughter. His laughter proved infectious, spreading to Hunk and then along to Keith and Pidge, until they were all laughing. Even Allura and Coran were chuckling, although they were clearly bemused.

“You–” Takashi stopped, trying to get his laughter under control. It took a moment, and he was still grinning from ear to ear and giggling, but it calmed down enough for Takashi to talk. “Keith, you really did that. I'm proud. I thought you weren't into mecha anime.”

“I'm not.” Keith coughed. “But... Evangelion is pretty cool.”

“I'm sorry, but what is this evangelion?” Allura shared a confused glance with Coran, and Takashi sobered up. “And what is a... mecha anime? Is this some sort of mechanical?”

Sharing a worried look with Keith, Takashi held a hurried and silent conversation. Neither wanted to introduce Allura and Coran to Evangelion, out of fear that the Alteans would get... ideas.

“It's an Earth thing,” Hunk finally said, giving Takashi and Keith both disappointed looks. Keith wilted, while Takashi winced. “You shouldn't hear us talk about it again. _Right_?”

“Yes.” Takashi and Keith spoke simultaneously, and Takashi felt like he was being scolded by an adult.

“I don't know,” Pidge said, thoughtful. “I think we might–”

“Never talk about it again,” Hunk finished for them, staring at his datefriend insistently.

The main console beeped, drawing everyone's attention. Coran hurried to his station, pulling up the alert on the main screen.

“It's an incoming transmission from the Blade.” Coran tapped at his console, and the alert vanished, replaced by video of Thace and Antok.

“Greetings.” Antok canted his head. “Ordinarily, Kolivan would handle this exchange but he is busy organizing the deployment of our operatives. A situation has developed that requires immediate attention. There is a prison labor camp on the outermost planet in the Rauja system. One of our operatives discovered that it has recently fallen into a contested territory. The two commanders fighting for control of that territory, Ladnok and Trugg, are among the most dangerous leaders of the empire. The planet itself offers no resources, beyond noted as a location for a medical facility, and the labor camp. If Ladnok or Trugg are to engage one another for the planet, it is doubtful that the prisoners would survive.”

“So we're going to liberate a prison.” Takashi nodded, getting his game face on. “Sounds easy enough.”

“What kind of labor camp?” Pidge asked, leaning forward. There was a dangerous gleam in their eye. “What do you know about the people there?”

“Little,” Thace replied. “The prison was one held by Haggar and her order. Zarkon was prone to giving her a measure of freedom and control that superseded even the highest commanders. What is known is that the prisoners there designed physical augmentations.”

“Like Shiro's arm?” Keith asked, his gaze slipping to Takashi. At the attention, Takashi glanced down at his arm as well, closing his right hand into a fist. These prisoners made weapons for Haggar. And Takashi had taken this weapon forcefully grafted to him and made it his own.

“And Sendak, and several commanding officers,” Antok added. “The druids made good use of this prison.”

“Druids?” Allura stepped forward, her voice sharp and colder than ice. A chill ran along Takashi's spine, making his skin itch and his muscles ache in the echo of memories of his forgotten year. “You say Haggar has druids?”

Antok paused, sharing a baffled look with Thace. “Yes. Haggar is the high priestess of the druids. They are the primary source of technological advancement for the empire. Even the empire's own Galra scientists defer to Haggar and the druids.”

Allura stood stock-still, shoulders tensely squared. Anger grew cloudy over her face, and Takashi felt himself become slowly distant, like he was moving a half-step to the left of himself. Hunk laid a hand on Takashi's shoulder, steadying and grounding him back into his body.

“Druids,” Allura began, her voice taught like a piano key, “were a sacred order of Altean alchemists. They were skilled in sciences and magics, visionaries and innovators, pioneers of the future. Legend said that they were the first alchemists, called life-givers.” Allura shook her head, her voice shaking with it. “Druids were a force for good. Whatever those things are that follow Haggar, they are _not_ druids.”

“Allura.” Takashi gave Hunk a brief reassuring smile, before moving to stand beside Allura. “Whatever this is, we can deal with it together.” Takashi glanced at the screen, nodding at Antok and Thace. “We'll handle this. Thank you. When you come across anything else, contact us. Whatever news you have, share it.”

“You already have the Blade's current deployment.” Antok canted his head toward Coran, and then to Pidge. “Our current roster is with you as well. Once our new deployments are active, then you will receive a copy. It would be unfortunate on all sides for ally casualties to occur. Stay safe, Paladins. Ladnok and Trugg both are dangerous in their own rights.”

“We'll avoid friendly fire,” Takashi promised. “And stay safe on your end too. Look out for each other.”

“We will.” Antok smiled, reassuring. “What is the point of peace and freedom if none who fight for them live to see it?”

Takashi nodded at Coran, and the call ended. Allura was still stiff, still radiating anger.

“The druids were sacred,” Allura said. At her side, her hands clenched into fists, shaking with emotion. “They are all _Altean_. That Haggar would– that she–” Allura shook her head. “It wasn't enough to destroy Altea, but to corrupt our traditions as well? Father would never–”

Allura cut off with a cry, the anger snapping away and sorrow oozing in its place.

“Allura,” Coran said, moving away from the forward console before stopping. “Your father understood the importance of the druids. You're right that he wouldn't stand for this. After all, King Alfor held the title himself.”

“Father... was a druid?” Allura stared at Coran in confusion. “He never mentioned that.”

“In his study of the construction of Voltron, King Alfor went off to study what was known about quintessence.” Coran glanced away. “He went alone. No one knew where he went, or what he was searching for. Upon his return, he began immediate work crafting the Voltron Lions. I tried to ask him where he had gone, but King Alfor never spoke about it.”

“Of course.” Allura nodded, smiling softly. “Father never liked sharing the things that troubled him. How long did it take him to finally speak his worries about Zarkon?”

“Too long.” Coran smiled. “Oh, the pheeb your mother was pregnant with you, King Alfor was tighter-lipped than a Jabloon on Rygnirath.”

Allura laughed, and Pidge quietly chuckled as well.

Takashi glanced back at the others, hoping to find something to preoccupy themselves with. Even if this was important history for them to know, it still felt like a private moment between Coran and Allura.

Hunk, naturally, was starry-eyed, and Takashi couldn't blame him. Pidge had gone to their console, pulling up the system and cross-checking with their Galra scanner. Keith, meanwhile, was staring at Takashi.

“What?” Takashi asked. He followed Keith's gaze down, to his right arm. “This? Keith, I already said that I've moved on from it.”

“I know.” Keith frowned, moving to hover of Pidge's console. “It's just... we're going to meet the people that designed your arm. They might know things about your time in the empire.”

“Keith.” Takashi glanced at Hunk, who stared at Takashi worriedly. Pidge as well had stopped typing, and Takashi could almost feel Allura and Coran staring at him. “Look, I've made my peace with it. There's going to be a lot of things that I won't remember, and I'm okay with that. Lance... helped me understand that. And I have you guys now. What's the point in worrying about the past if it brought me here, with you guys? You're family to me.”

“Shiro!” Hunk sobbed, pulling Takashi into a hug. “You're my family too!”

Takashi felt weight on him from all sides, as the others joined in on this hug. Wiggling his arms, Takashi did his best to hug them all back, only getting Hunk in one arm, and Pidge and Allura in the other.

“You are right,” Allura said, her voice regaining the regal firmness it usually held. “As much as we can keep our minds on the past, it is important to remember where it has led us in the present.”

“And the future we're fighting for,” Keith added.

“So let's go free these prisoners.” Takashi peered over Hunk's head, at the map Pidge had pulled up on the main screen. “It's a start in dismantling these druids Haggar created–”

“They are _not_ druids,” Allura insisted. “No true druid would _ever_ involve themselves in the Komar.”

“Of course not.” From his squished vantage point, the most of Allura he could see was the top of her head. “But we are with you, Allura. I can't say we know exactly what this is like, but we are here to help you.”

“I– thank you.” Allura's head bowed, her voice brimming with emotion. “Of course, Shiro. You are my team now. And my– my family. We should– no, we must be there for one another.”

Takashi smiled, glad that they could come together like this. Even after everything, they were all family to one another. More than that, they were each other's home.

“Now, let's go to Rauja.” Takashi nudged at everyone, wiggling in place. “Uh. Guys? We can stop the hugging. We're working on a time limit, after all.”

* * *

The more planets they visited, the more Takashi was reminded of why he loved space and the stars, and why he became an astroexplorer. Rauja itself was no different.

The planet was beautiful. Half of Rauja was covered in a lush forest, vibrantly, beautifully green. Takashi could barely remember the last time he had seen a forest so green—Olkarion's own forests lacked that specific green tint, being more an autumn brown than anything else. To see something that reminded him so dearly of the forests of Earth was nothing short of stunning.

Where half the planet was a lush forest, the other half was a mountainous tangle, reaching out and around one another like roots. Still, Takashi found it all stunning.

“Alright, Pidge, what are we looking at?” Takashi pulled up the known data Thace had sent alongside what the Castle already had.

“Well, the atmosphere is breathable, so we don't have to worry about housing the prisoners,” Pidge replied. “Beyond that... I'm not sure. There's a prison down there, but I'm not picking up where.”

“I can run a scan of the planet,” Allura offered. To Black's side, Blue's sonic cannon materialized. “Pinpoint where everything is.”

“Alright.” Takashi pulled up video feed of Coran, alone on the bridge of the Castle. “Coran, keep your distance. Once we've secured the prison, then you can come in. It's faster for the evacuation if we're not shuttling prisoners between the planet and you.”

“Right, Shiro.” Coran's video vanished, and Allura let out a cheer.

“I have the visuals. Sending to Pidge now.”

Takashi received a copy of the scan, overlaying it with his main screen. “Talk to me, Pidge. What's our approach here?”

A spot on the planet's surface, at the edge of the forest and the mountains, lit up.

“Well, I've sent you all the location of the prison. There's nothing indicating that landing will be hard.” A ping on the scanners, and Takashi glanced down, pulling it up on his main screen. His pre-set scan for Lance's biosignature hadn't gone off, although he hadn't been able to set it beyond a search for the Black Paladin. Six dots appeared on Takashi's screen, flying up from the planet and approaching. “Oh. Scrap that. We've got incoming.”

“I see them. Six fighters.” Takashi breathed out, Black's jawblade materializing. In a burst of purple, Black shot forward, slicing through two of the fighters. Another two were frozen, and then exploded when Keith fired Red's heat beam at them. The last two fighters surged after Pidge and Hunk, but the Yellow and Green quickly tore into them. “Alright. Let's head down – whoa!”

Takashi pulled Black to a stop, staring in awe at the massive storm within the mountains. Lightning arced through the storm, lighting it up. One bolt shot out from the storm, cracking into a mountain with a thundering boom that Takashi swore he could feel. Black rumbled back, her own thunder mixing with the imagined. A shockwave sent out from the spot rippled through the forest. Takashi gaped in awe as the forest glowed, bright and radiant, just for an instant, before dimming back to the lush green.

“Space is awesome,” Takashi said, grinning.

“Scary, but awesome,” Hunk agreed.

“Is it safe?” Keith asked. “That shockwave was massive. Could it have hurt us?”

“Scans from Allura and the Castle say no.” Pidge hummed. “The shockwave actually wasn't that strong, and it looks like the atmosphere is a bit thinner than we're used to.”

“But still not dangerous?” Keith popped up on a video screen, insistent. Takashi raised an eyebrow, still smiling from the wonder of the planet.

“Far from it,” Pidge replied. “It's reading as easily breathable, and that shockwave isn't registering as anything more than a light breeze.”

“That's good.” Takashi let out a tight breath.

“What about the fighters?” Keith asked. “Should we expect any more of those?”

“My scans did not pick up any other fighters on the planet.” Allura sounded thoughtful. “And it is reassuring to hear that this is not a danger. I cannot imagine how we would both liberate and evacuate this labor camp if the Castle of Lions could not land.”

“Alright, let's head in.” Takashi aimed Black toward the planet's surface, following the path Pidge had calculated. Once he was closer, Takashi could see the labor camp itself. Dug deep into a valley at the base of the mountains, a thick stone bulwark curled halfway around the prison, protecting it from both the shockwave and stray lightning bolts.

Landing, Takashi left Black, bayard in hand. The bayard shifted forms, becoming a rifle that fit snugly in Takashi's hands. Up ahead, the doors to the prison loomed, large enough to hide a landing bay for the fighters.

“My scans picked up two Galra on the other side of those doors, alongside a number of sentries.” Allura stood beside Takashi, the others not far behind. The Lions were all sitting in a semi-circle before the prison, with Black in the center. “The prisoners are further inside, gathered together.”

“Then let's be prepared for a fight.” Takashi nodded at Pidge and Keith, and they all ran to the sides of the bay doors, Pidge, Takashi, and Hunk on one side, while Allura and Keith were on the other. A control panel glowed at them, and Pidge scanned over it, the hand symbol fuzzing briefly before flickering green.

“You're good to go.” Pidge stepped back, holding up their grapple tightly as Takashi switched his rifle to his left hand. Pressing his right hand against the panel, it blinked in access. The bay doors began opening, sinking down into the ground. Takashi gestured for everyone to meet in the middle. His bayard shifted, turning into a cutlass. They were about to enter battle, close combat, and he wouldn't be needing a rifle. He only wished–

The bayard shifted again, returning to the more familiar lance Takashi wielded. Gripping the shaft tightly, Takashi grit his teeth. This was his first mission since they had clashed with Lotor, and he was ready to get back to fighting and defending the universe.

“We surrender!”

Takashi blinked, staring at the two Galra in disbelief.

“What?” Takashi peered past the two Galra, at the rows of sentries standing, no weapons in sight. “Are you serious?”

“Oh, quiznak, it's the Champion!” the smaller Galra squeaked. He had thick red fur curving around his head. He leaned closer to the portly Galra. “Scregg. Scregg, Voltron has the _Champion_!”

Takashi froze, sharing a a wide-eyed disbelieving look with Allura. She gave him a shrug of the head, silently telling him to play along.

“Uh, yeah!” Takashi waved his lance in what he hoped was convincingly menacing. “It's good that you surrendered. Now, why did you surrender?”

“You're... the Champion,” Scregg, now staring at Takashi and paling with every word, looked up at the Lions posed behind them. “And you're _Voltron_. You took down Emperor Zarkon.”

“Where are the prisoners?” Keith glanced at Takashi confused, before focusing on the two Galra. “What did you do with them?”

“They're in the mess hall,” the reedy Galra pointed behind himself, deeper into the prison. “We gathered them there because... you're Voltron.”

“Ilvek!” Scregg hissed. “Keep it together!”

“So. Ilvek, Scregg.” Allura stepped forward, looking between the two. “If you are really surrendering–”

“We are!” Ilvek said, practically a squeak as he nodded furiously. “We really are. A full surrender.”

“Then take us to the warden's office,” Pidge all but demanded. “I want access to your database. There's a prisoner I want to find.”

“That's a good idea, Pidge.” Takashi lowered his lance. They could find Commander Holt, and maybe also run a facial recognition program for Lance. “I'll go with Pidge while Ilvek and Scregg here take us to the warden's office. Allura, you take Hunk and Keith and free the prisoners. Coran? You're free to land.”

“On my way, Shiro,” Coran chirped, while Allura, Hunk, and Keith nodded.

“And we'll take care of these sentries too,” Keith said, raising his sword. “I don't like having them stand here like this.”

“Of course.” Takashi nodded. He gestured at Ilvek and Scregg, who jumped in place. “Lead the way, you two.”

* * *

“Did you really have to destroy all those sentry robots?” Ilvek asked, glancing back behind them. “They didn't do anything. We ordered them to disarm.”

“We're not taking any chances,” Takashi said. Up ahead, he saw a door at the end of the hall, with an access pad beside it. “Besides, even if you surrendered, Commanders Ladnok and Trugg are coming.”

“Ladnok and Trugg?” Scregg let out a squeak. “Both of them? But– but they're so competitive! Why would they work together?”

“They're not,” Pidge dryly replied. “Those two are fighting over the territory you're in. We're busting this place before they get here.”

“And... you captured Commander Morvok?” Ilvek asked, his voice light.

Takashi shared a glance with Pidge, before sighing. “Morvok is... gone. And has been for almost a movement now.”

“He's dead. We didn't do it.” Pidge stared at the pad like it offended them. “Shiro, either you get over here and open this or get one of them to open this door.”

“Oh.” Scregg shared a look with Ilvek, before pressing his hand against the pad.

“Coran has landed,” Allura said. “Hunk is watching over the entrance while Keith and I lead the prisoners out.”

“Copy that. We're entering the warden's office,” Takashi replied, jerking his head toward the door for Scregg and Ilvek to enter after Pidge.

The warden's office looked lived-in, with food wrappers strewn about and armor strewn about. The walls were covered in all sorts of posters, including—Takashi gaped—ones of Zarkon.

“Pidge, are you seeing these?” Takashi pointed at one where Zarkon was obviously posing, his cape flowing behind him as he stood in the superhero pose, legs apart and hands on his hips. “Did Zarkon seriously do these?”

“That's a popular recruitment poster!” Scregg growled, standing between Takashi and the poster in question. “It's been the top recruitment poster for almost 8 kilopheebs.”

Takashi shook his head in disbelief. “I'm not even going to try to understand any of that.”

“Well, maybe you can help me instead?” Pidge offered, not glancing up from where they were hacking into the main console. “Do you even remember what your prisoner number was? If they work off of a clear numerical system, then I can just search for the prisoners before and after yours for Dad.”

“The Champion's number?” Ilvek tilted his head. “It's 117-9875.”

“Ilvek!” Scregg hissed. “We might have surrendered, but we're not helping them!”

“I can't help it if I like the arena battles,” Ilvek mumbled. “They're good entertainment.”

Takashi stared into space, wishing he wasn't having this conversation. It was bad enough that he was recognized for his time as a fighter for the empire, but to meet someone who enjoyed the arena as entertainment was nearing his limits.

“Found you!” Pidge grinned. There, on the screen, was a picture of Takashi from before, without the white forelock or the scar. Along with the picture came a hefty file. “Whoa.”

“Yeah.” Takashi swallowed. There was so much here, like how he got his scar and when he lost his arm, but... he didn't _need_ to know about any of it. “Still, now you know what prisoner numbers to look around for your dad.”

“Already searching for him. And Matt.” Pidge glanced up as two more screens popped up, running searches for Matt and Commander Holt. A fourth screen appeared, this one with Lance's face as it ran through the database. “Once we figure out where Matt was, then we can focus our search for the rebels there.”

“And we can go after Commander Holt and Lance,” Takashi added. “We'll get them back.”

Pidge smiled, and then froze, glaring over Takashi's shoulder at the peering Ilvek. Hands held up, Ilvek backed away. Little cartoon Pidge heads appeared over Takashi's file as it copied down.

“I'm still copying down your file though,” Pidge said. “Better we have your file than not having it.”

Takashi hummed, not wanting to speak. While he had let go of his lost past, the others hadn't. In truth, Takashi wondered if this interest in his files was something that Keith had brought up to Pidge. Keith, out of everyone, felt the most empathy with others, to the point where he would get upset on someone's behalf if they weren't—Takashi in particular being a case in point.

The console pinged, and information filed out around Matt's picture. Takashi's breath skipped when, a moment later, Commander Holt's screen pinged a positive. He glanced at Lance's picture, hopeful, but the scan there continued.

“Hey, Lance's file might be further along than yours, Dad's, and Matt's files.” Pidge smiled. “It'll take some time.”

Of course it would, Takashi reasoned. He had to look on the bright side, which was that he finally had a lead on his crew from the mission to Kerberos. His lost team was coming back together.

“Paladins!” Coran's voice cut through everything, and Pidge and Takashi shared a wide-eyed, panicked look. “Scanners have picked up multiple fleet warships entering the system!”

“Alright, we're on it.” Takashi glanced at Pidge. “How long until the data transfer is done.”

The console pinged, Takashi's heart skipping a beat as a file appeared centered around Lance's picture.

“Not long enough,” Pidge breathed. “Guys, I've got a lead on Lance. How long can you hold them off?”

“What? Wait, there's more fleet warships incoming. These appear– oh no.” Takashi's blood ran cold as Coran's cheer dropped. “The second group have come from a different direction than the first group. They appear to be engaging one another in battle.”

“Ladnok and Trugg,” Takashi breathed. “They're here.”

Ilvek sprang forward, shoving Takashi aside as his arms looped around Pidge.

“Victory or death!” he cried, hoisting Pidge up away from the console. “If we're going down, at least we're taking one of you with us!”

“Spoken like a true Galra, Ilvek!” Scregg cheered, and Takashi whirled, bayard turning into a shield. Scregg held up a blaster, firing wildly. Several shots bounced off Takashi's shield, and he stared in shock as several more blew up the console in a shower of sparks.

“No!” Takashi screamed, rushing Scregg and slamming him against the wall. Scregg dropped the blaster as he fell to the floor, while Ilvek collapsed as Pidge tazed him with their bayard. “Pidge, did we get anything?”

“No.” Pidge growled in frustration, slamming a fist against the wall. “The file transfer was all four at once. They destroyed everything.”

“But now we know what to look for,” Takashi said, trying to reach for the silver lining. They had a lead, had confirmation that Lance had been somewhere within the empire.

And as much as Takashi wanted to break down himself, he couldn't. He was the leader now, the Black Paladin, and before that he had been one of the legs of Voltron, the leg that pushed everyone forward.

“Next time,” Takashi promised. “We'll find them next time.” Breathing out, Takashi steeled himself for battle. “Allura, Keith, Hunk, get to your Lions. Defend the Castle.”

“Of course,” Allura said, while Hunk and Keith added their own confirmations. In front of Takashi, Pidge nodded, resolute, and they ran out of the office.

“What's our plan?” Pidge asked, breaking away from Takashi to go to Green. “Are we just defending the Castle?”

“They appear to be fighting each other as much as they're targeting the Castle,” Coran reported. Takashi glanced at the Castle, where the particle barrier was raised and under heavy fire. High above, Takashi saw more than a dozen fleet warships, divided into two factions and firing at one another. Yellow, Red, and Blue were all in the air as well, taking on swarms of fighters.

“Alright, Pidge, let's join the others.” Grinning, Takashi took to the air. Black sang, jawblade forming as Takashi corkscrewed high, slicing through half a dozen fighters that were close together. To the side, Red fired off the heat beam, melting through several fighters while Blue froze just as many with the ice beam.

The fleet warships stopped firing on each other, and Takashi's grin turned into a grimace as he had to dodge incoming ion blasts. Down below, the Castle's particle barrier held strong as the assault eased up.

“Guys, we have to distract them from the Castle.” Takashi growled alongside Black, slicing through more fighters and strafing along a fleet warship. Black spun, dodging an ion blast as he reunited with the others. Two ion cannons fired past him, slamming directly into te Castle's particle barrier. “Coran can't fly away if they're all right above him.”

“What do we do, then?” Pidge asked, and Green fired at a fighter with their plant ray, causing roots to spring out and consume the fighter. Allura froze another three fighters, which Pidge fired at in turn. “We're already doing our best to distract Ladnok and Trugg.”

“Converge on me,” Takashi commanded, flying into formation beside Keith. “We have to form Voltron.”

Pidge, Allura, and Hunk all joined in, entering formation.

Voltron came together easily, and Takashi felt less of a strain. He reached out, wondering if there would be another echo, another call from Lance, and smiled when he heard the faint echo of a distant voice.

Bolstered by the faint echo of Lance, Takashi directed Voltron into battle, the storm roiling with a desire to fight, to protect.

Voltron burst into battle, smashing into a fleet warship and tearing it in half. They grabbed the ion cannon, using it to smash into another fleet warship. Firing lasers, a third fleet warship was obliterated along with over a dozen fighters.

“So what's the plan here?” Hunk asked. “Because we can't keep smashing like we're the Hunk.”

“See!” Keith yelled. “You said it too! You said the Hunk too, Hunk!”

“That's because I _am_ Hunk!” Hunk defended. “And you know what I meant!”

“Not the time, guys.” Takashi spotted three ion cannons turning away from the Castle and taking aim at Voltron. “Allura, give us thrust, we've got incoming on our side!”

“Of course!” Voltron shifted, Blue's thrusters moving them out of the way of the ion blasts.

“Form sword!” Takashi grit his teeth. “It's not enough that we have their attention. We still need to get the fleet warships away from the Castle.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Pidge asked, while Voltron's sword materialized in a blaze of light. “We can't slice through all of them?”

A thunderous boom shook the air, and down below the entire forest went luminous.

“The storm,” Takashi realized. “We'll grab one of the fleet warships and throw it into the storm. The lightning will destroy it and we'll direct Trugg and Ladnok both far enough away for Coran to get away.”

“That's a good plan!” Keith's grin came clear through the comms, and Takashi could feel it even through the bond that connected them as Voltron.

Surging forward, Voltron stabbed into a fleet warship, thrusters at full blast. The warship moved slowly, its own thrusters working to negate the push. Hunk and Allura yelled, their thrusters pushing hard, and Voltron roared with them. The fleet warship began to move, faster and faster with each passing tick, pushed away from the airspace above the Castle and away from the rest of the gathered fleets. Voltron was fired at from all sides, from fleet warships and fighters alike, all giving chase.

The storm raged within the center of the mountains, and all too soon Voltron was pushing the fleet warship into it. The fleet warship cracked against one of the mountains, and the mountain crackled with electricity.

“Oh, quiznack!” Takashi's eyes widened. “Reverse thrust, now!”

Lighting arced through the mountains, slamming full blast into the fleet warship and exploding in a bright, blinding flash of light.

“It's a faraday cage,” Pidge breathed, awestruck. “The entire mountain system is a faraday cage, locking the storm inside it.”

“That's so cool!” Hunk's grin was palpable, before he yelped as ion cannons fired at them. Voltron jerked as Hunk dodged, before Allura moved with him, both legs steadying out as Takashi joined with them, dodging the ion blasts. “Okay, space appreciation is done! Back to surviving!”

Voltron turned to face the oncoming fleet warships, all gathered as one. Far behind them, the Castle took flight, clear of Ladnok and Trugg's forces. Takashi felt like laughing as the Castle exited the atmosphere at full thrust, moving away from the battle.

“It worked!” Coran cheered. “The Castle is in the clear!”

“Alright, we're right behind you.” Takashi gripped the controls tightly. “Allura, Hunk, prepare for full thrust. We're pushing right through and past them.”

“What, seriously?” Hunk's disbelief came through clear as day, but Takashi pushed past it, returning his own assurance and faith to bolster the others. “But they're all focused on us now. Won't they follow?”

“Not if I make it to the bridge upon return,” Allura said, her tone resolute. “We can teludav away quickly enough.”

“That's it?” Keith asked. “We're done here?”

“The labor camp is empty, our job is done.” Takashi breahted out. “Now let's get out of here. The Castle is full of former prisoners, and their safety is our top priority. The longer we stay here, the more chance there is of the Castle being targeted again.”

“Right.” Keith's fire felt tempered by the others, as they all came together. “But how do we get past tehm?”

“Hunk, use your bayard.” Takashi smiled. “We're going to blast a path for us.”

Takashi's screen altered, showing the targeting system aimed at dozens of fighters and two of the fleet warships. Voltron fired, cutting through a massive swath of the attacking forces and clearing a path for them to fly in.

Allura and Hunk set their thrusters to full blast, and Takashi as well. Voltron surged forward, flying right through and past the fleets. Soon after, the hurricane fell apart, Voltron breaking back into each of the Lions, and Takashi felt as much as heard the echo cry out one last time before vanishing. A quick glance at his scanners showed the biosignature hadn't detected anything, and Takashi flew Black back into her hangar.

* * *

Outside the bridge, Takashi came across the freed prisoners—refugees now, Takashi supposed. The alien leading them looked like a giant frog, who stopped upon spotting Takashi and the other Paladins.

“Ah! Hello!” the frog smiled. “You must be – oh. You're... you're the Champion. Prisoner 117-9875. Or subject Y0XT39.”

Takashi froze, taken back to a time before, when he was strapped to an examination table, lights shining into his eyes. Blinking rapidly, the image vanished, taking the memory with it, and Takashi grimaced.

“What did you call me?” he asked, staring at the alien in confusion.

“I apologize.” the alien bowed his head. “I am Fargut. I recognized you because the witch Haggar once had me design your arm.”

“Oh.” Takashi's face fell. He glanced over at Keith, who was watching with interest. “What... did you mean when you said I was a subject?”

“Haggar often took prisoners for her own experimentation,” Fargut explained, looking apologetic. “I believe she mostly wanted to test cybernetic augmentation upon your species. Your design is different from many of the ones I have been forced to bestow upon the commanding ranks of the empire, however. It is meant to perfectly mimic the limb it replaced.”

“That's it?” Keith snorted. “I'm joining Allura in the bridge. I thought there would be more.”

“I am sorry to be of less help,” Fargut replied. “And... I have a request, however.”

Takashi perked up, while Pidge and Hunk went over to the other refugees and began talking excitedly with them. “What is it?”

“Our homes are all still within the hold of the Galra,” Fargut explained. “As such, it is too dangerous for us to return. We have no home yet to return to. If it is not so bold to ask for a safe planet to remain?”

“Not at all,” Takashi said, smiling. He nodded at the doors to the bridge. “We can take you with us back to Olkarion. I'm sure that the Coalition would be more than happy to have you stay there.”

Fargut grinned, hopping in joy. “Of course! And several of my fellows will require medical aid, of course. Despite the lax nature of our wardens, the druids were not kind to us.”

Takashi understood their feelings, wanting to keep everything as safe as possible, even their home. Still, Takashi made a note to asks about their planets, so that Voltron could help. And to speak to Ryner, so that the refugees would still have a place to stay until it was safe to go home again.

“We can see about that easily,” Takashi assured Fargut, raising his voice so it would carry to the other refugees. “We have a medical bay here on the Castle for anyone requiring immediate attention.”

* * *

It was midday on Olkarion when they landed. Takashi had shared the plans with Allura, who smiled and added her own assurances to the worried refugees.

“I assure you, you have nothing to be worried over,” Allura said as the doors of the drop ship opened to reveal Olkarion's flourishing city. “I am certain that the Olkari will gladly allow you safe refuge here among them.”

“Paladins!” Ryner said, approaching with a group of Olkari. She gestured at the gathered refugees, and the Olkari with her ushered the refugees along, leading them toward the city. “It is good to see your safe return.”

“Ryner.” Allura grinned, and Takashi matched it. “I was hoping we could discuss accommodations for these refugees.”

“Accommodations?” Ryner blinked, before her face softened. “But of course. Our best medical care is currently being offered to them.”

“Actually, we wanted to discuss housing.” Takashi glanced over at the refugees, who were already engaging the Olkari in deep discussion, some of them laughing. “A majority of their planets are still under the empire's rule. We can't take them back to their homes because of it.”

“We were hoping to discuss the possibility of Olkarion crafting a refugee encampment,” Allura added. “These will hardly be the last refugees without home we will come across, and although we haven't discussed it formally with the Coalition, I was hoping that you would find it in your heart to open your home as theirs, at least until the war is over.”

“Is that so?” Ryner frowned, before nodding. “Of course then. Olkarion would be more than glad to take them in. We are flourishing more than we have in almost ten kilopheebs, Princess. Our planet is open to housing these refugees. All we ask in return is for resources. We can provide housing, yes, but our food resources and the raw materials necessary are lacking.”

“Very well then.” Allura's smile faltered. “If you are amenable, we may call upon the leaders of the Coalition for a solution. I am sure that they would gladly provide the resources you require.”

'I am also amenable to Olkarion joining the Coalition as well,” Ryner said. “Voltron saved our planet. It is the least we can do to offer our aid in the war in return. Olkarion will gladly join your Coalition.”

Takashi's smiled widened. They were moving forward, the Coalition growing with each passing quintant.

“Your defenses would need bolstering, however,” Allura said, her smile faltering. “We have crossed paths with the new leader of the empire, and he is more than willing to take planets hostage.”

“Lotor.” Ryner's mouth twisted in disgust. “We received his transmission just the same as the rest of the known universe.”

“He held a Coalition planet hostage once,” Takashi said. “We fought him away, but the threat is still there. We want to make sure that Olkarion can defend itself in case it happens.”

“Olkarion's defenses are not so easily broken,” Ryner laughed, before trailing off. “Many of my people have noticed, however, the return of five Lions. Did something change?”

Takashi shared a look with Allura, before nodding. They hadn't exactly made it a secret that Lance was gone. “Of course. Until Lance's return, I'll be flying the Black Lion as Voltron's new leader, while Allura flies the Blue Lion.”

“A Princess and a Paladin,” Ryner hummed, smiling at Allura. “You were already a fine leader, Princess, and you will make a finer Paladin. And you, Shiro, have the makings of a fine leader within yourself. Now, shall we call up these Coalition leaders so that Olkarion may have access to the resources necessary for expanding our city to hold refugees?”

Allura nodded, leading the way back to the drop ship. Takashi followed, thinking about how proud Lance would be. The other Lance, from that other universe, had insisted that Takashi would make a good Black Paladin, and even though he knew that Black had chosen him, it still felt different to someone else looking at Takashi and agreeing that he had the makings of a good leader.

Takashi couldn't wait until Lance was back, so that he could see for himself just how much his faith in his team was well-placed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe the amount of effort it took me to actually find that little tidbit about what Shiro's subject designation is.


	17. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's back to answering distress signals!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: this chapter got split into two because I reached the halfway point and it was 7 THOUSAND WORDS. 
> 
> Naturally, to avoid having to do a pair of 14K chapters, I have now split both sets of chapters into two. One to cover this mission, and one to cover the episode I'd like to cover.

Lance walked onto the bridge smiling. Today was a good quintant, having woken up from a refreshing night's sleep, still elated from the mission to Rauja. Ryner's discussion with the Coalition leaders had gone well into the evening, but Olkarion was now, officially, a part of the Coalition of Free Systems (a title Allura had suggested, to help distance the new governance from Voltron; it was better, she had reasoned, that Voltron remain a symbol to inspire than a banner to fight beneath).

The bridge was already occupied by everyone, and he stared, glancing around worriedly. Nobody wore their armor, but Keith and Allura did look disgruntled.

“Uh, did I miss another false alarm?” Lance grinned sheepishly. “Sorry about that. It takes me a while to wash off my face mask.”

“You didn't,” Hunk replied, looking over at Keith and Allura pointedly. “It's just that Lance isn't Shiro, and I think we need to remember that he's not going to be the first one up and running in the morning.”

Lance paused, looking at Keith and Allura. Keith at least looked abashed, wincing and giving Lance an apologetic look. Allura, however, kept up her disgruntled look. Lance met her gaze head-on, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

“Hunk's right.” Lance gave Hunk an encouraging nod. “I'm not Shiro. Also, I think at this point we should admit that he was avoiding a lot of sleep to be the first one here.”

“Lance is right.” Pidge stepped forward. “Both of them. I don't think we should hold Lance to all the same standards as Shiro.”

“Thank you, Pidge.”

“Obviously he's going to fail horribly if we expect him to inspire hope, or use his secret robot arm to interface with Galra tech.” Pidge smirked, and Lance bit back an annoyed growl.

“ _Thank you_ , Pidge.” Refocusing on Allura, he spotted Coran just behind her, pulling up the center screens and interface. “What are we looking at today? Another planet in rebellion?”

“Actually, today we are returning to responding to active distress signals one more.” Coran grinned, pulling up the map, zooming in on a system and then to the second planet. “This is Thaliar. I've been running through the number of logged distress signals and cross-checking with our updated map. Of those, Thaliar is among the few with their distress signal still active.”

“We will arrive there in three vargas, which is more than enough time for everyone to eat.” Allura smiled, glancing at Lance for something more. With a start, he realized that she expected him to give out a plan of attack.

“Uh, let's get some breakfast before planning.” Lance matched Allura's smile, but put more ease into his. “I don't think we can really plan anything until we know more about how the empire's got a hold on the planet.”

“Yeah, I want my morning goo,” Pidge said, looking over at the map. They yawned, turning toward the door. “Goo first, Voltron later.”

“Yeah, we need food.” Hunk followed after Pidge, nudging Keith into following along. “I would rather recalibrate a cold fission engine than miss breakfast.”

“Hunk, please stop comparing things to advanced mechanics we don't understand,” Lance groaned, drooping as he trailed after, gesturing for Allura and Coran to follow along. Even if they both had already eaten, it was still good for them all to share a meal. Nothing bonded people into a family like a good shared meal.

* * *

Thaliar had a surreal beauty to it. It looked like a planet had melted halfway, with one side perfectly rounded while the other had goopy-looking stretches extending out, like drops that had melted away.

“Have I mentioned recently how much I love space?” Lance glanced around the back of the Black chair, eyebrows raised and a huge grin spread over his face. “Because this is so awesome.”

“Dude, maybe we can hold off on the love of awesome space stuff until _after_ we save the planet?” Hunk stared at Lance, unimpressed.

“Agreed.” Keith frowned at Lance, either because Lance was trying to diffuse the tension or because he was sitting in what was meant to be Shiro's seat. It might have been because of both, Lance could rarely tell with Keith. “Let's focus on the empire.”

“No activity in the system,” Pidge announced. “And my Galra tracker has the nearest backup they could call being five systems away.”

“Scans aren't picking up any ships in the atmosphere.” Hunk's frown could be _felt_ , even from so far away. “This feels like a trap.”

“It's not a trap.” Lance rolled his eyes. “No way did Lotor plan on us attacking this specific planet.”

He couldn't deny that it was strange, the lack of airborne presence. Even with Olkarion, there had been airborne resistance that they had had to battle. The only exception had been Taujeer, and there they had been too late and were relegated to helping the surviving Taujeerans escape.

“What do our scans say about the planet's stability?” Lance asked, pulling up the various scans on his console. “This could be like Taujeer.” He paused, brow furrowing. He hadn't thought to ask, with how similar both realities had seemed, and with Shiro's disappearance. “We... did save Taujeer in this reality?”

“Oh yeah.” Hunk sounded proud, and it put a grin on Lance's face. “We definitely saved the Taujeerans.”

“It's possible, but unlikely.” Coran hummed. “Everything shows up cleaner than a Grulvyn on shedding day.”

“Uh, what's a Grulvyn?” Hunk asked. “And please don't let the answer make me regret asking?”

“It's a–” Pidge paused. “Okay, the closest way I can describe it is if Nessie and Mothman had a child.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I'm regretting asking.”

Lance shuddered, attempting to imagine what a Grulvyn was before deciding that it was far better to not do that. “Okay, ignoring that nightmare fuel, let's focus on the planet. What do we know about Thaliar?”

“Remarkably little.” Coran looked up at the main screen, frowning in thought. “Which is unusual, as I do remember the name, but cannot recall where I have heard it before.”

“Well, we'll head down planetside. Unless something happens on our way down, it looks like we're not fighting in our lions for this one.” Lance stood, moving toward the Black's podium. His blue armor was stored there now, while Allura kept her pink armor in Blue's pillar. There might have been other copies of black armor, or of blue, but Lance didn't want to wear black.

Black was Shiro's color, in this reality. Lance might share the Lion, perhaps, but he wouldn't dare share in armor that was rightfully Shiro's.

“The signal is coming from the... southern side, I think?” Pidge groaned, and a specific part of Thaliar lit up, pinpointing the beacon as coming from the tip of the rounded half of the planet. “There. That side.”

“That might be the equator,” Hunk mused. “Most of the planets we come across are strange enough to figure out, but I'm pretty sure that's the equator.”

Lance clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. “Okay, paladins. We don't know what we're flying into but at least now we know where we're going. Pidge, plot us a course down and let's go down.”

* * *

The flight down to Thaliar's surface was clean, leaving Lance with a continued sense of unease. He couldn't know what the state of affairs on the surface were, and it dug deep that they were in the dark. Far too often, they were in the dark about something, and it nearly killed them. Sendak, the corrupted crystal, the robeasts, the trap at the Balmera.

Zarkon.

Lotor.

Lance wanted this mission to be easy, for it to simply be that the empire had gone to ground on Thaliar instead of setting some sort of trap.

“What do we know about the atmosphere?” Lance asked. “Because if we keep coming across deadly atmo, then maybe we should keep out helmets up.”

“It's...” Pidge appeared in a video screen, frowning. “Almost breathable? There's a higher helium count, but nothing that wouldn't kill us to breathe for a couple vargas.”

“That's good.” Hunk appeared, sounding incredibly done. “I wouldn't want to finally discover the planet that wants to eat us.”

“Nonsense Hunk, we're galaxies away from Fainaran.” Allura popped up, grinning like it was some kind of joke.

“Wait what?” Hunk's eyes went wide. “There's really a planet that eats people?”

“Cool your jets, Hunk,” Lance interrupted. “We're heading in.”

Thaliar was beautiful, rolling hills of long grass, colored a vibrant red. They flew low, and Black rumbled, the wake that rippled the grass a phantom breeze in Lance's mind, making him grin alongside Black's delight. Leaning back, Lance closed his eyes, trusting in Black as he fell into her embrace. She was opening herself up to trust him, and now he was trusting her.

Light burst into Lance's vision, and he could see the planet, could see the hills and the grass and could feel the winds, every breeze and windstorm, far further than could be seen. Seeing through Black's eyes was so different than it was seeing through Blue's. Where with Blue everything was tinted blue at the edges, and it was like seeing through a fish's eye, Black was like looking through a hawk, faraway details seen as clear as day.

Black's vision caught the way the grass stopped, and the distant smoke from something burning.

“Heads up,” Lance called out. “We're approaching something on fire.”

“When _isn't_ something on fire?” Hunk grumbled. “How can you even see what's happening? We're– Pidge?”

“Ninety ticks until we reach the source of the distress signal,” Pidge responded.

“Yeah.” Lance couldn't see it, but he could _feel_ Hunk's knowing nod. “What are you doing?” He gasped. “Does Black have special zooming powers?”

Lance pulled back from Black, opening his eyes. He blinked, adjusting to the change in vision, and grinned. “I was seeing through Black's eyes. She's got amazing telephonic vision.”

“Telescopic, Lance,” Keith corrected. “Is English even your first language?”

“No, it's not,” Lance blandly replied. He took a deep breath, drawing on the patience he'd learned. “But thank you for correcting me.”

“Thirty seconds,” Allura interrupted. “Lance, you're right. There's something up ahead. I can see the smoke.”

The field ended. One moment, they were flying over fields of grass, the next they were in open air, passing over a cliff. Twisting Black around, Lance stared at the cliff face. A city was carved into the earth, stretching from the top of the cliff all the way down, and extending further out as far as the eye could see. Black earth met silvery metal where the older parts were integrated into the more technologically advanced sections, glowing a familiar blue-white.

“Whoa.” Pidge's awe lifted through the air, pulling Lance along and making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Hunk, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah.” Hunk paused. “Including that _Galra fighter_!”

Lance bit back a yelp, Black turning and bounding out of Yellow's way, picking up a lone fighter approaching from a massive hole carved into the cliff. The smoke came from there, pluming out of the hole in huge bubbles that burst out into the open air.

“Are there any others?” Keith asked, while Lance refocused back on the fighter. “I'm taking it down!”

“Cool your jets, Keith!” Lance took aim, and fired Black's laser at the fighter's wing. The fighter spiraled, crashing down below them. “Alright. If anyone else comes out, then we're engaging. If there's nothing, then we land.”

Down below, the grass fluttered, and the downed fighter was coated in red.

“I believe we have found the local peoples,” Allura said, fascinated. Lance kept his focus on the cave, still belching out smoke. He counted the ticks, unsure if he was counting them or the seconds, before breathing out when no sign of backup was coming.

“Let's land.” Lance turned Black toward the field below, where the downed fighter was in pieces, torn apart by the creatures.

“Just don't squish any of the locals,” Pidge replied, following after him.

“Hey, is that any way to talk to your fearless leader?” Lance's mouth twisted in annoyance.

“Right. Because your landing skills have always been impeccable.” Video of Pidge popped up, blandly staring right at him. After a moment, they shrugged. “But, you have been getting better.”

“You're right I have!” Lance carefully flew Black down, setting her gently to the field.

“Let's hear about the invasion from the locals.” Hunk paused. “At least, I _hope_ those red guys are the locals.”

“Not the time, Hunk.” Lance rolled his eyes. “And if it is, then we'll fight that bridge when we get to it.”

“Don't you mean– never mind.” Keith groaned.

Lance hopped out of Black, and into the grass. Oddly, it was shoulder-length, so as he watched, Keith and Pidge walked out of their lions and all he could see was up to Keith's chin, while Pidge had vanished entirely.

“I hate this planet,” Pidge growled, the grass parting as they walked around. “I can't see anything but this _stupid_ grass!”

“Don't insult the planet,” Allura chastised. All Lance could see of her were her eyes and the top half of her helmet. She looked annoyed, and Lance grinned as she swiped at the grass to try to clear it away. “Even if this grass _is_ ridiculously long.”

“Everyone, converge on me.” Lance looked around. “Pidge, can you find me well enough?”

“I will _taze you_ ,” Pidge growled, the grass around them moving as they approached, their green armor standing out among the red. “Keith, cut a path for us. Or, Lance, pull out a sword.”

“I don't think the Black Bayard works like that.” Lance hummed, looking over the field. In the distance, he could spot the remnants of the fighter, through the flowing grass. “And we don't know where the natives are. The– what do we call them? Thalions? Thaliarians?”

Lance made a face at the cumbersome word, while Hunk's mouth thinned.

“I believe they're called Thali,” Coran chimed in, voice thoughtful. “That's as much as the Castle's memory has.”

“Uh, guys?” Keith looked around them. “Why is the grass moving if there's no wind?”

“Voltron!”

Lance yelped, stumbling back into Hunk as the grass shifted, parting as the natives stood all around them. The Thali were ten feet tall, it looked like, with four arms that ended in broad claws. They were dressed in red armor, covering their sleek black fur.

“Voltron!” One of the Thali said, bearing a scar that left one eye milk-white. “You are here!”

“Yeah we are.” Lance grinned, straightening up. He nodded at the giant hole in the cliff. “So, we heard you have a Galra problem?”

“We do!” The half-blind Thali brightened. “I am Zenthar, high lord of my people. I sent out the distress signal, and now you are here! You can expel the Galra from our sacred temple!”

“Do not worry.” Allura offered them a reassuring smile. “We will save your temple.”

“Hey, quick question.” Hunk raised a hand. “Not to make it sound like we can't save you, but... where are the Galra here? We didn't get attacked flying in, and usually we're attacked.”

“And there was just the one ship.” Lance glanced at the downed fighter, tilting his head in thought when he realized that it looked like it had been literally shredded. Far beyond, the hole in the cliff continued to belch smoke. “Where are the others? Like Hunk said, usually there's a lot more of those guys.”

“We have fought hard, and earlier this spicolian movement one of the Galra's massive ships left with the latest they have stolen from us, although we know not when it will return.” Zenthar bowed their head. “They have already stolen so much from the sacred temple. Now the Galra seek to steal the temple itself!”

“Not to worry.” Allura peered over the grass, growling as a stray breeze had several strands slap into her face. Lance winced as she grew in height, her armor adjusting to fit her new size, so she could look above the grass. “As I said, we will save your temple.”

“Oh, that's just _cheating_ ,” Pidge growled, glaring up at Allura's larger form in betrayal. “Stay small and suffer with me.”

“Shush!” Keith hissed, not taking his eyes off of the Thali.

The Thali gasped, before bowing low, nearly vanishing back into the grass.

“An Altean!” Lance's eyes widened, as Allura stiffened. He stepped forward, moving to stand beside Allura. She'd grown to Shiro's height, but Lance kept himself rigid, hoping that he was enough to remind Allura that she wasn't alone here.

“How do you know I'm Altean?” Allura asked, practically demanding Zenthar to answer. She sounded hopeful, almost desperately so. “Have you come across other Alteans?”

“Alteans delivered the sacred temple to our planet,” Zenthar breathed, still bowing. Lance glanced back at Hunk, who came over and helped Zenthar and another Thali back into standing.

“You don't have to bow,” Hunk said, giving them a soft, friendly smile.

“What do you mean they delivered the temple?” Pidge frowned, tilting their head up as they tried to look directly at Zenthar.

“What is this temple?” Keith added, looking past them all, at the cliff. The smoke, meanwhile, slowed to a stop.

“The temple changed the planet, gifting it to our people as a new home after our old star exploded and consumed our previous planet.” Zenthar perked up, preening as Allura gave them an uncertain smile. “We are surely blessed to have not only Voltron, but an Altean to save us.”

While Allura silently repeated the wording, Lance moved forward. Even if there were no other fighters coming, Lance doubted that the empire would ignore a downed fighter.

“That's right.” Lance smiled, gently nudging Allura to bring her back to present. “Now, if you can lead us to the temple, we can take down the last of the Galra here.”

“Of course.” Zenthar gestured toward the cliff, and together they began to trek toward the hole.

* * *

The hole looked like something had come along and taken their claws to scoop out a massive chunk of the ground. There were ruins of the city along the edges, and even deeper in Lance could spot the remnants of where the Thali lived. Entire buildings were carved into, while still others looked like the work had caused them to collapse. Lance tried not to linger on those, tried not to think about the possibility of lives lost from the empire's handiwork. There were Thali walking beside him, still alive and still fighting, and those still alive that were currently imprisoned.

Fighting the war was always easier if Lance looked at it from the perspective of those lives saved, instead of those lives lost. How could he be a part of Voltron, be a symbol of hope, if he let himself focus on those that Voltron hadn't be there to save.

From within, Lance heard the distant sounds of laser fire, and felt the ground shudder as a massive rumble echoed out into the open sky, and starting running. Keith and Allura burst in front of him, while Hunk and Pidge weren't far behind. Zenthar led the rest of the Thali, falling to all sixes as they charged.

“What's happening?” Hunk cried, looking from the charging Thali to Lance in confusion.

“Someone's fighting.” Keith huffed, slowing down until he was running beside Hunk.

“Yeah, but who?” Lance came up on the edge of the grass, stumbling to avoid Allura, and nearly tripping himself. “ _Whoa_.”

The hole wasn't just carved into the mountain, but also deep into the planet. The purples of empire-made construction lined the outer edges, which stretched over a hundred meters around.

Lance pointed at it, still thrown by the hugeness of it all. “That is one _big_ hole.”

On the far side, a platform rose up, carrying a trio of Thali engaged in battle with a dozen sentries. As they watched, one of the Thali launched at the nearest sentry, knocking it down before ripping it to pieces. Two more went after the bold Thali, sending them down where the rest of their group were thrown. Lance watched as the trio were surrounded, all the sentries training their blasters on them.

“Granite below!” Zenthar shrieked, visibly fretting. “Kuvar's gone ahead and provoked the Galra again!”

“Let's help them!” Lance pulled out his bayard, getting down to one knee as it shifted into the sniper rifle. “Guys, get down there now! I'll cover you from here.”

Lance peered through his scope, taking careful aim. Beside him, the sound of jet boosters firing signaled that the rest of the team was on the move. He zoomed in on the sentry nearest the group, one that had created a blade with its blaster and was raising to strike.

Lance breathed out, centering the sentry in his sights.

He fired.

The sentry stumbled back, a hole burned clear through its torso as it fell. The blaster clattered beside it, and the Thali lunged, grabbing it and using the blade to slice through another sentry. Lance zoomed his sights out, reorienting on a sentry further out as the team landed.

Pidge came swinging in on their grappling hook, slamming into a sentry. They retracted their grapple, switching to the tazer as they leaped into the fray. Hunk landed several feet away, firing a barrage into the gathered sentries and forcing them to scatter. Keith and Allura landed at the same time, on either side of Hunk, and together they began to slice through any sentry that dared get within range.

“We're so awesome,” Lance chuckled, watching as Allura used her whip to cut a sentry into two from shoulder to hip, while Keith was slicing another sentry to bits. Pidge stuck close to Hunk, the two moving to the far end of the platform, where a control panel could be spotted. Lance watched as Hunk broke off from Pidge, firing at a pair of sentries that were overpowering one of the Thali. “Hunk, secure the Thali. Pidge, you... keep hacking your way into the system. Keith, Allura, work your way toward Hunk. Those last two Thali need help.”

Lance fired twice more, taking out another two sentries. He watched, grip relaxing, as Allura spun on the ball of her foot, whip whirling to curl around the last sentry. Her snarl came in clear through the comms as she yanked, flinging the sentry over the edge of the platform and down into the black abyss.

“Is that it? Did we get them all?” Hunk asked, while Lance lowered his rifle. He let it dematerialize, keeping his bayard in hand. Zenthar was pacing around behind him, visibly fretting over the state of Kuvar and the other two Thali, and Lance smiled.

“Yeah, Hunk.” Keith's relief was palpable, even if Lance had his back turned. He knew that everyone could handle themselves if something happened, and that he could get to them quick if they needed him. “That's them.”

“This platform can move,” Pidge said. “I'm taking us up.”

“Hey, Zenthar!” Lance walked up to the fretting Thali, carefully nudging his way through the circled Thali who were watching. “Kuvar's okay! Everyone's bringing them all back up here.”

Zenthar paused, looking over at Lance with relief clear on his face. “Oh, thank the Ancients! Thank you, Voltron! Now please, save our temple!”

“Pidge?” Lance nodded at Zenthar, turning his attention back at the hole, where the platform was raising enough to surface. A particle barrier formed over it, creating a bridge across that the trio of Thali used to run across. “We're going down.”

“That's already the plan.” Allura looked grim as Lance crossed the bridge. “We spoke to Kuvar. She is the next in line for high lord, and has been spying on the Galra stationed here. There is no time to waste if we are to save this temple.”

“Yeah! You know all those explosions we heard? They were Kuvar setting off the explosives that the empire wanted to use to break apart whatever this temple is.” Hunk glared, looking down over the edge of the platform. “They were gonna blow it up!”

“They're not going to blow it up.” Keith frowned, brow furrowed in determination. Lance felt the same, holding up his bayard as the platform began its descent.

“Keith's right. We're going to stop them.” Lance stepped up to the edge of the platform, peering down into the abyss. How that he had a clear view, it looked incredibly deep, with only a faint light like a distant star shining back up from the black. “Now, how deep do you think this thing goes?”

“Maybe it's as deep as the caves on the Balmera,” Hunk mused, drawing Lance's attention away as Allura took hold of the back of Lance's collar and yanked him away from the edge. Lance bit back a yelp, sticking his arms out as he regain his balance. Hunk stared off into space, his gaze flat. “Those go down _really_ deep. Almost to the planet's core.”

“We've got another dobosh before we reach the bottom of this.” Pidge sat down, leaning against the terminal. They reached out, tapping it with the back of their hand. “This doesn't have a map of the place, and we don't have a BLIP to drop down there.”

“So we're going in blind.” Hunk frowned, looking at Lance. “Do we have a plan?”

“You mean besides our usual plan to defeat the empire?” Pidge shrugged, pulling up their gauntlet's holoscreen.

“Kuvar said she set off most of the explosives before they could be put into place.” Allura grimaced. “And without a means for the Galra stationed here to retreat, it is unknown what we can do beyond disarming the remaining explosives.”

“There aren't that many of them stationed here,” Keith said. “It's probably like with Sendak. Just the one commander and a bunch of sentries.”

“We can work with that.” Lance smiled, although it wasn't as large as it could have been. He had no memory of Sendak, nothing of what had happened, only what everyone else had said happened. “Pidge, you take Hunk and Keith to work your tech magic taking down the last of the explosives. Allura and I will work on distracting the commander and anyone else. So long as they're looking at us, they're not looking at you.”

“Why do I have to go with them?” Keith asked, brow furrowing in thought. “I could do better fighting whatever sentries are down there.”

“Because they might need special Galra access,” Lance replied, pointedly raising his eyebrows. “Special Galra access that _you_ have. Plus, in case they come across a problem, you're our best close combat fighter to get rid of that problem so they don't have to.”

Keith paused, staring at Lance in surprise. His lips pursed, and Lance waited, expectant. Finally, Keith sighed. “I didn't think about it like that.”

“That's why we're a team.” Lance nodded. “We all have our places. It's a terrible team leader who doesn't know what their team members can do.”

“Wow. Being in that other reality really changed you.” Hunk started, slapping a hand over his mouth. “Not that you weren't awesome before! Just that you... uh... I can't finish this and not insult you.”

“I know, I'm awesome.” Lance preened, taking a pose as some sparkles burst out of the tip of his bayard. “And you guys are too.”

“Thirty ticks until the bottom,” Hunk said, peering out over the side. “That light is looking more like a light and I can start to see the bottom. Oh hey, it's the sentry Allura tossed over the side! _Wow_ , did that hit the ground hard...”

Keith hooked a hand around Hunk, dragging him back from the edge as Lance raised his bayard, rifle materializing. All around him, the others drew their bayards.

“Was there anyone investigating?” Lance asked. “Are we walking into a fight?”

“Nobody's down there,” Hunk replied hefting up his blaster. He glanced around at the others, inquisitive. “So... should we really have all our weapons out now?”

“Me and Allura, yes. Keith, keep your bayard out but don't use your sword unless you have to.” Lance geared himself up, prepared to look around and take stock of the situation they were about to go into. True to Hunk's word, the surrounding area was clear of any sentries or an empire commander. Instead, there was nearby the remains of the sentry, torn apart and smashed from the fall, and cargo boxes all around them.

Purple light shown out over a huge cavern with a dome-like top, the hole over the exact center. The platform came to a rest on a rocky ledge, overlooking a massive ship. The ship itself looked almost familiar, sleek and silver-white and curved in a circle, with an empty structure within. Entire sections looked torn apart, missing entire panels.

“So it's a ship. Huh.” Pidge tilted their head. “That makes sense.”

“Yeah! If the Alteans brought it, then of course it's going to be an Altean ship.” Hunk nodded matter-of-factly.

Lance kept up his scan of the area, while the others were marveling over the Altean ship. A second crater was off to the side, lightly smoking.

“Well, now we know where the explosives are.” Lance looked through his scope, doing a visual scan for the sentries or the commander. “As soon as we pick up where the commander is, Allura and I will go after him. Pidge, Hunk, Keith, you know what to do.”

“Disarm the explosives. Got it.” Hunk sounded proud, and Lance could almost imagine the nod and smile he had.

“That ship looks familiar.” Allura squinted, taking a step toward the excavated ship. Lance peered away from his scope, watching Allura warily. He still hadn't spotted the commander, the lack of presence worrying. Allura gasped. “It's an Altean colony ship!”

“What?” Lance shared a baffled look with Keith. “You guys had colonizing?”

“Aw man, I thought the Alteans were the good ones,” Hunk moaned.

“The colony ships carried terraforming devices,” Allura explained, her voice cold with barely-restrained rage. “They were used on planets that were deemed too unstable to carry life, changing the planet's physiology to better nurture life.”

“That's what Zenthar meant,” Keith breathed. “The Alteans _literally_ changed this planet to house the Thali.”

Allura snarled. “And now the empire seeks to destroy not only what is sacred to the Thali, but to Altea..”

“Uh, Allura? You might want to cool your jets.” Lance straightened up. “We need to keep cool here. I get that you're upset but how about channeling that anger toward being productive.”

“Quiznack!” Pidge cursed, and blaster fire came from below. Lance ducked down, rolling behind one of the cargo boxes and positioning his rifle atop it. Through his scope, he spotted a dozen sentries firing upon the platform, all surrounding a gaunt-looking Galra in the orange commander's regalia. “I guess the commander found us!”

“You're right Lance,” Allura said, and Lance didn't like the way she sounded so calm. “I should channel my anger into something productive.”

Lance saw Allura running forward, out past the central platform and down toward the group of sentries. Her whip formed, twirling and curving through the air in front of her, deflecting blaster bolts as the sentries targeted her.

“Oh, this mission is going pear-shaped,” Lance growled. “Keith! Get down there and help Allura. Hunk, you and me are providing cover fire.” As he gave orders, his bayard shifted into the sniper rifle, and he started taking out sentries. “Just make sure you don't hit Keith or Allura.”

“Got it!” Lance watched as Hunk began to lay down his own cover fire, diverting some of the sentries attention away from Allura and Keith.

“What about me?” Pidge asked. “I'm going down there too.”

“Not yet.” Lance ducked low to avoid a shot that ricocheted off the cargo box next to him. “As soon as I give the okay, you and Hunk go down. Our priority is still disarming those bombs.”

“What if they're already armed?” Hunk asked. “Not that I _want_ to go running downhill into a bunch of sentries firing at me, but what if they're already primed?”

Lance watched as Allura reached the first of the sentries. He'd managed to take down three, focused more on laying cover fire than on precision. Several more bore the damage of his attacks, which Allura and Keith took to slicing into with earnest.

“We'll deal with that if it happens.” Lance slid down, back against the cargo box, pulling his bayard back with him. The sentries had all stopped firing, and Lance was already preparing himself to take out the remaining sentries alongside Allura and Keith. “Now go!”

Hunk nodded, and together he and Pidge went off, toward the stored explosives. Lance got to his feet, bayard transforming into the now-familiar sword as he used his jet to boost down into the battle. Keith and Allura were back to back, deflecting the laser fire with their bayards as the remaining sentries surrounded them.

Lance swung wide as he dropped down, slicing a sentry in half. The sentry was still firing as it went down, laser bolts flying wild and striking the cavern's ceiling high above. Stalactites rained down as Lance went on the move, Allura and Keith taking the opening to go against the remaining sentries. In one swift move, Keith slid along the ground, slicing through three sentries before throwing his sword into a fourth, leaping after it to deliver the final blow. Allura used her whip to cut through one sentry before wrapping around another and pulling it through the air and high over her shoulder to smash into another.

Laser fire went after Lance, as his bayard shifted into a shield. Ducking low, he pulled up his armor's shield, swapping out and letting his shield dematerialize. After a moment, he let it come back up, this time resembling Takashi's lance. Jumping up, Lance spun his weapon, using his jets for an extra boost before dropping down on the last sentry, stabbing his lance into and through the sentry.

To the side, the commander raised a small blaster, glaring at them. Movement came behind him, and Lance held still, hoping that the flash of green meant help was coming.

“You, you!” the commander snarled, baring sharp teeth. “I am Commander Ragnor, you upstart rebels! I have killed thousands of rebels before you, and will not see this great empire fall to the likes of you.” Ragnor aimed his blaster past Lance, his sharp grin turning manic. “And I will start with the Altean. I am honored to have the pleasure of killing you. It is a great shame that the Galra hunted your people to extinction thousands of pheebs ago, as I would have flourished in hunting your species down!”

Pidge lunged at the same time Allura moved, tazing Ragnor and causing him to drop his blaster. Allura's whip, meanwhile, shot out, wrapping around Ragnor's torso and pinning his arms to his side. She let out a guttural scream, one full of rage and righteous fury, as she yanked on her whip. Ragnor was pulled into the air, and flung into a far-off pillar.

“Uh.” Lance stared, then yelped as a stalactite half the size of his body dropped down and shattered nearby. “Keith? Are you okay?”

“I'm right behind you.” Lance stumbled, twisting in place to stare at Keith, who matched his gaze with mild interest. “What?”

“I didn't know where you were.” Lance held up a hand. “Help me back to my feet?”

Keith rolled his eyes, but extended an arm that Lance used to clamber into standing. He let his bayard dematerialize completely, turning his attention back to Pidge with a smile. “Pidge, thanks for that.”

“Lucky for you, the explosives weren't primed,” Pidge replied. “Hunk is off taking care of the last of them. There wasn't even a remote detonator or anything.”

“Great!” Lance grinned, nodding as he took stock of Allura. She was hunched over, shoulders heaving with huge gulps of air. “Allura? Are you okay there?”

“I...” Allura straightened up, letting out a small cough. “I will be fine. I apologize for breaking from the plan.”

“It's okay.” Lance shared a pointed look with Keith, stopping him from talking. “We understand. If this were an Earth ship, we would be the same way.”

“The empire has already taken so much, but that there are monsters like this Ragnor,” Allura spat the name like it was poison, “out here speaking of wanting to kill me purely because I am Altean is something I cannot abide.”

“Hey, it's not like we don't agree with you.” Pidge held up their hands. “If you hadn't flung him like that, then one of us would have taken him out.”

“That's right.” Lance spotted Hunk, covered in dust, waving from behind Pidge. Lance gave an answering wave, beckoning Hunk to join them. “We should go make sure that guy's down for good, then make sure Zenthar, Kuvar, and the rest of the Thali know that their planet's safe.”

“What are we going to do with this Ragnor dude?” Hunk asked, slightly breathless as he came to a stop between Pidge and Keith. “We can't just leave him here.”

“We'll put him on a ship and send him through a wormhole,” Lance offered, unable to think up any alternative. He hadn't considered that they might have fights where the enemy couldn't retreat once defeated, or stop when their ship was exploded. “I think shoving him back into the empire's hands is good enough.”

“We could keep him for information,” Pidge offered. “Like we did with Sendak.”

Lance shuddered, while Hunk made an X with his arms.

“No way,” Hunk said, his entire body set and determination clear on his face. “I had the Castle try to kill us once. That's not happening again.”

“So wormhole it is.” Keith nodded, while Allura kept her gaze on the ruins of the Altean ship. “Allura?”

Allura closed her eyes, bowing her head. “Yes. Of course.”

“Awesome! Then let's go collect us one Galra commander and then let the Thali know that everything's clear!” Lance gestured at the pillar, already starting his march.

* * *

They left Thaliar several vargas later, when the Thali had insisted upon giving them a celebratory feast. Coran had landed the Castle, Ragnor transported into the remains of the downed fighter. Hunk and Pidge worked to fix it up so the thrusters were functional, and programmed an autopilot to fly through the wormhole.

Lance found that the food on Thaliar consisted of a grainy root stew, one that everyone had trouble choking down due to how bitter it was, while Allura kept up a kind face and turned down half the praise Zenthar and Kuvar heaped upon her.

By the time they saw Ragnor's shift off, everyone was too tired to stay on the bridge. Lance and Coran shared a look, sticking around as Allura stood alone at the helm.

“Allura?” Coran asked. “I heard about the colony ship. Checking our records, it was from long before your father's reign. We couldn't have known.”

“I know that!” Allura snapped, whirling around to glare at Coran. She stopped, eyes widening in shock, before she sagged. “I know. But there is only so much I can take, Coran. First Altea, then what the empire has done to the druids, and now that they mined Altean technology...” Allura shook her head. The space mice trotted in, running around Lance's feet to join Allura at the helm. She smiled, sadly and fondly, scooping them up into her hands. “There is so little of our culture and people left, and still it feels like Zarkon continues to take from us. For once I wish we had some hope for our people.”

“I know, Princess.” Coran bowed his head, and Lance felt like he was intruding, like this wasn't where he should be. He steadily backed toward the door.

“Lance?” Allura glanced at him, and he saw the beginnings of tears being blinked away. “Was there something you needed?”

“No.” Lance shook his head. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay, but Coran's got it in hand so I'll just be–”

“Would you like to hear about Altea?” Allura interrupted. “It's been so long since I've talked about it to– to anyone.”

Lance stared in shock, before smiling. He glanced at Coran, who's eyes were blinking back tears as well, and nodded. “Why don't we get everyone together. You can tell us all about Altea. Including your rain.” Lance made a face. “I can't believe you grew up with molten rocks as your rain.”

“With what?” Allura looked at Coran, baffled, before brightening. “Ah, yes! Yes, the rain. When molten rocks fell from the sky. Goodness, I had forgotten about the Cybranthine Showers.” Allura smiled, fondly. “Father had his broadsword forged from one that fell without melting, didn't he? He always boasted of it.”

Coran burst out laughing. “He did indeed. And after it nearly conked a hole right through his head!”

Lance laughed, too, gesturing for them both to follow along. These family stories were best shared with family, after all, and Lance couldn't think of any better way for them to bond than to share some fun stories of home.


	18. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where there is life, there is hope.

Takashi breathed out, settling against Lance's– _his_ seat on the bridge. The talks between Ryner and the Coalition leaders had gone along swimmingly, and already supply lines and refugee trails were being created. Mallix still had dozens of trade routes and connections with traders sympathetic to their cause, all ready and willing to divert their routes to smuggle refugees out of the empire's labor camps and prisons. In exchange, the traders were given access to whatever each of the coalition planets could offer, from foods to raw metals to technology. Those that couldn't offer supplies offered their own ships and volunteers in return.

“Everything's coming together,” Takashi said, glancing at the map. He could almost see battle lines, could almost make connections and spot something familiar to him.

A warfront.

“The coalition is still coming together, yes. It will be some time before we can say it has a properly organized leadership, however.” Allura sighed. “I fear that this will lead to instability, should Lotor seek another freed world such as Puig.”

“We won't let that happen.” Takashi stood, giving Allura his most reassuring smile. “We created the coalition in just a handful of movements, I'm sure that in another few they'll have a stable leadership among them.” He glanced at the map. “And if not... I don't think anyone would say no to you taking charge.”

“Me?” Allura blinked. “Shiro, you must be joking. I can hardly be considered to lead the coalition.”

“You're already a great leader.” Takashi gestured around the bridge. “Even though you became a paladin, you're still the one in charge here. The would be no coalition without you, Allura. I'm sure most of the leaders would agree on that.”

“But Voltron–” Allura stopped, Takashi waiting patiently as she mulled it over. “I suppose you have a point. I _am_ qualified, but I would rather be freely given the option of leading the coalition than to take it for myself.”

Takashi nodded. “Nobody is going to do that. And if anyone tries, we'll be right there supporting you when you prove them wrong.”

“I would not.” Allura paused, a wistful look gleaming over her eyes as a teasing smile spread over her face. “Although I wouldn't mind lecturing anyone who tried on the importance of freely chosen leaders over those who opportunistically take leadership for themselves.”

“See?” Takashi gestured, grinning. “That's great leader material. It's already in you, Allura. Even if you're not the leader of Voltron itself, you're still the person leading us.” He glanced toward his old seat, and beyond, to the blue pillar. His smile faded, turning bittersweet. “How... how is Blue doing?”

“The Blue Lion?” Allura's eyebrows rose, before they—and her smile—fell into something softer, kinder. “She is lovely. I admit, the controls of a Lion are less like that of the Castle, so I do rely upon her for my flying often.” She paused, as Takashi's expression slowly fell. “She misses you, I believe. While I fly her, I am still connected to all the Lions. You and I, we are in a place of best fit.” Here, Allura reached out for the central console, hesitated just a hair before she could touch, and pulled back. “We are currently where we are most needed. It is for that reason alone that I know that you are to return to the Blue Lion at some quintant in the future. Until that quintant, however...”

“You will be the Blue Paladin, and I'll be the Black Paladin,” Takashi finished, feeling a weight leave out of his lungs, like the breath he'd held in weighed him down until he could neither breathe nor move like he wanted. Blue still wanted him. Even though he was needed in Black, even though she had shut him out, Blue still wanted him.

“Precisely.” Allura stepped down from the dais, the main console vanishing. Takashi left his seat behind as he stood.

“Well, it's been a long quintant.” Takashi sighed, stretching and rolling his shoulders to release the tension. “By now the others should be asleep. We should too.”

“You're right.” Allura smiled. “It is best to rest when we can. Tomorrow.... we will continue. Take everything one quintant at a time, at least for now.”

Takashi nodded, relieved. Tomorrow. He would take everything one quintant at a time.

* * *

He slept well, and Takashi wanted to hate it. It meant that he had finally gotten used to sleeping through the night without Lance by his side. But it also meant that he could sleep through the night without Lance by his side.

He wanted to hate that he slept well, but he couldn't. Even when he first slept through the night, with Lance, he still felt guilty. Takashi had apologized for interrupting Lance's own sleep, only to be told that his own needs needed met just as much as anyone else. It wasn't selfish to look after himself, and do what he felt was best for himself. Just like it wasn't selfish to not ask for help, or recognize when help was needed.

Takashi couldn't hate the fact he slept through the night, and slept well, because he knew that it was something to be proud of.

And he still mulled over that pride, as he stepped onto the bridge with the rest of his family.

“I'm just saying, talking with those scientists could be pretty helpful.” Hunk gestured at Takashi's arm. “We barely understand how this thing works and they _designed it_. And built it.”

“I still think we shouldn't.” Keith pursed his lips, about two sentences away from a frown. “They were stuck there and forced to work on weapons for the empire to outfit their commanding officers. Like Sendak.”

Takashi watched, out of the corner of his eye, pointedly not thinking about Sendak. That was a sore point, and his right shoulder ached in echo of when he'd punched the pod holding Sendak, before his rising panic had caused Takashi to eject Sendak from the Castle.

“And tested their stuff out on people they enslaved. Like Shiro.” Hunk paused, looking at Takashi wide-eyed and sheepish. “No offense, Shiro. About your arm.”

“I get it.” Takashi nodded, holding up his right arm. “I spoke with the scientist who designed this, actually. He's the frog-looking one. Fargut. I'm... okay if you want to talk to him about this.” Everyone, especially Hunk and Keith, looked at Takashi critically. “I'm serious. He apologized and explained a couple things to me, and it helped. Really. You have my approval to ask about my arm. Not that you needed it in the first place, but if it makes you feel any better, you have it.”

“It does. A lot.” Hunk grinned. “Thanks, Shiro.”

“If you really want something to study, I believe we still have Sendak's arm locked away in level 22.” Allura paused, glancing at Coran. “It... _was_ level 22?”

“Level 24 princess,” Coran gently corrected, jogging to the main console. He chuckled. “Level 22 is where we keep the dunnelfabs.”

Takashi surreptitiously glanced at Pidge, alongside the rest of the team. Pidge glanced at everyone, and shrugged.

“I think they're spare parts?” Pidge shrugged, throwing their hands in the air. “I just know how to read the language. And I still haven't found an owner's manual, Coran.”

“There is none!” Coran snapped. “This Castle was built as technology beyond its time, its interfaces almost as intuitive as the Lions themselves! We didn't need an owner's manual!” Coran typed furiously at the console, before the screen blinked angrily at him. He stared at it in shock, before sighing, his shoulders drooping. “Although I will admit that creating one would have helped. The alchemy King Alfor used in helping design the Castle was far from an exact science.”

“We don't need an owner's manual to pull up the map.” Allura walked up to the dais, working with Coran to pull up the map of the universe. Red dots sprang all around them, before zeroing in on a single system, the second planet from the star pulsing a soft red. “We are returning to responding to distress signals.”

“I've been going over the updated map, cross-checking it with the Castle's backlog of recorded distress signals. This here is Thaliar.” Coran spun on his heel, pulling the system up onto the main screen. “It is one of the few planets that has had an active distress signal for the entirety of the ten kilopheebs since Voltron was scattered. It is also, thank the ancients, close enough that we need not place the teludav on undue strain. It's hard enough keeping this Castle in tip-top shape when we keep putting such a strain on everything.” Coran wagged a finger at everyone, as though it was their fault that the universe couldn't fling a magical robot cat without hitting some kind of trouble. “I still would like you to go over the system with that Galra tracker of yours, Pidge.”

Pidge blinked in surprise. “ You said my name!” Their eyes narrowed, instantly suspicious. “Why? What brought this on?”

“I've been going over your progress as paladins, and I am impressed with all of you.” Coran smiled. “You remind me of the previous paladins. They were all fine warriors and brilliant leaders. Yes, even Zarkon. He was emperor of the Galra long before he ever became a Paladin.” Coran's smile turned bittersweet. “I thought I would honor this growth by starting to use your names. And it's been long enough that I finally learned all your names.”

“ _Finally_ ,” Hunk breathed, fist not-so-discretely pumping as stars shone in his eyes. “I _finally_ get to hear my name.”

“No more getting ranked by height?” Pidge grinned, practically bouncing into their chair. “Let's do this!”

“What do you mean, you finally learned all our names?” Keith stared at Coran in disbelief.

“Well it's not like we had a formal introduction when we first met.” Coran grinned, far too smug as Keith threw his hands up in the air in frustrated defeat.

Takashi did his best to hold in his laughter as he went forward, toward his seat. Ducking down, Takashi gave in, using his mouth to muffle his laughter as best he could.

* * *

Thaliar, upon approach, was a different sort of beautiful to Rauja. The planet looked half-melted, which delighted Takashi to no end. The more places that Voltron went to, the more planets and systems Takashi saw, the more he fell in love with space.

But as much as he wished to stop and marvel at Thaliar, there were other, more important matters at hand. Saving the universe couldn't take a backseat to anything, despite Takashi's wishes otherwise. He would enjoy the wonders of space as they came, make room for his own happiness.

“Alright team, let's remember to stick close.” Takashi glanced at Black's monitors, taking in that they were flying in formation—the _correct_ formation, with Takashi in the lead.

“Yeah, it's not like the nearest backup is five systems away or anything.” Takashi couldn't see it, but he could _hear_ the way Pidge rolled their eyes. “Or the lack of activity our scanners are picking up.”

“Yeah, but Thaceryx had those exact same things, and look what happened there.” Hunk groaned. “It was a trap. A huge trap.”

“They knew we were coming that time, Hunk,” Takashi assured, slowing Black as they began their descent toward the surface. “Lotor somehow figured out about the tracker and lured us there. Nobody knows we're about to hit here.”

“I believe we are safe enough in having the element of surprise.” Allura hummed, certainty bleeding through her every word. She opened a video screen, determination giving way to uncertainty and suspicion. “Although I do wonder about the lack of activity. Surely someone must have picked up on our approach by now.”

“If they have, they're probably planning a surrender.” Pidge popped up on a video screen, shrugging. “This could be like Rauja.”

“They still attacked us, Pidge.” Takashi groaned. He looked out over the land, rolling red hills spanning as far as he could see and beyond. Not even Black could see an end to it, although she let out a pleased rumble at the winds, gently swaying along to the currents. “What are the coordinates on the distress signal? I'm not picking up any signs of civilization.”

“Neither am I.” Hunk's worry wove through the comms, pulling at Takashi's good mood. “Are we sure we're not too late? Ten, uh, kilopheebs? Yeah, ten kilopheebs is a _really_ long time.”

“The distress signal is active, Hunk.” Pidge's judgment hung heavy, overcoming the worry Hunk had left dragging the air down. “It's a _live_ broadcast. Whoever is down here, they're still fighting.”

“And besides, this could be like the Balmera, or Labreex.” Keith appeared in a video screen, rolling his eyes even as he fondly smiled. “The people that live on Thaliar could just live underground.”

“Okay, yeah, alright. I'll give you that.” Another video appeared on the edge of Takashi's screen, this time of Hunk. He looked mollified, his worries relieved for the moment. “But I reserve the right for a sad 'I told you so' if we find out the place is like some kind of horror movie. I won't like it, _at all_ , but I'll need to say it.”

“That's fine, Hunk.” Takashi smiled, glancing at the screen. He reached over, opening visual comms to everyone. “And Pidge, how are we looking on tracking that signal?”

“I'm sending coordinates now.” Pidge rolled their eyes. “Have any of you taken a close look at this place, though?”

“You mean the red dirt?” Keith snorted. “Yeah. You're going to be really stealthy here.”

“Wait. That's not dirt. That's–” Allura gasped, a video screen popping up showing her squinting, then pulling back, eyes wide. Takashi followed along, looking closely, noticing the way the red– “Grass!”

“Red grass.” Takashi's eyebrows raised, a slow grin growing on his face. “That's a new one.”

The grass swayed in the wind, and a glance from side to side showed that the grass was rippling from the force of the Lions flying past. Black loved it, coasting along the currents as the sound of a cool breeze and distant birds chirping echoed in the back of Takashi's mind. With it came the sensation of flying, Black's delight was so contagious. His grin widened, laughter building up his chest before bubbling out.

“Shiro's laughing. Why is Shiro laughing?” Hunk squinted on his screen, before chuckling himself. “Oh. Oh quiznack it's contagious.”

“Black's really happy to be here.” Takashi's cheeks hurt from smiling so wide, as he rode out the laughter. “She _loves_ the winds here.”

“I suppose she would.” Allura covered her mouth, stifling her own laughter. “The Guardian Spirit of the Skies has always held a fondness for the open atmosphere. Why, I remember this one story of the time Voltron interfered in sky races held on the asteroid belt of Mimury. Father loved to say that Zar–”

Allura cut off, growing quiet. The good mood turned into a pall in the air, weighing it down. Takashi coughed, pulling up the coordinates Pidge had sent. They overlaid his screen, displaying a map that showed that they were off course, flying just to the left of where the signal originated.

“Alright, lets get back on course.” Takashi grinned, glancing at Allura's screen and hoping that she knew he was directing his best, most reassuring grin at her. Allura's troubled expression eased, softening into something closer to peaceful. Takashi's grin became a little surer, in the wake of this personal win. “We can talk about the past later. For now, Pidge, great job on tracking the signal.”

“Thanks Shiro.” Pidge smiled on their screen, something familiar and familial. “Now let's go kick empire butt!”

“It is what we do best,” Takashi admitted with a smile. Black roared as Takashi adjusted their trajectory, the winds in the back of his mind growing into a buffeting furor. Black's delight continued, building up more and more until she let out a roar. Everyone else let out shouts of surprise and shock, to which Takashi burst out laughing. “I did say she was happy!”

“Yeah, but that's a different thing.” Hunk tapped at the side of his helmet, groaning. “Man, I forgot that the lions can be this _loud_. Shiro, can't you do anything about making the Black Lion roar, like, _not_ in my ear?”

“I don't think I can do that,” Takashi said, still riding off of Black's amusement. He blinked, smile fading as he looked out at the hills of grass. Out in the distance, tendrils of smoke rose out, fading into a haze above the horizon. “Looks like we're closing in on the source of the distress signal.”

“We are.” Allura frowned, brow furrowing. “Coran, what does the Castle database have on Thaliar? These atmospheric readings are familiar, but I cannot place them. I'm sending the readings to you.”

“I'm pulling them up now.” Coran let out a hushed 'quiznack', before sighing. “I'm not finding much here, Allura. Looking over the atmosphere, it looks similar to Altea's atmosphere. The helium levels are slightly elevated, however.”

“Not enough to be dangerous,” Pidge added, one side of their mouth curling in thought.

“Thaliar does rattle my synapses.” Coran hummed. “I'll keep looking through the Castle's archives, and update you when I find out– quiznack! Everything's moved about, how Thace keeps things organized like this I will never understand. Anyway, once I've got this sorted and found what the archives have on Thaliar, I will send word. Wait, Chuchule don't bite that!”

Coran shrieked, before his comms cut out.

“Uh.” Hunk chuckled nervously. “Is Coran okay?”

“He will be fine. The mice enjoy playing with him.” Allura smiled, looking and sounding far too innocent and distressingly smug.

“Guys, are we just ignoring the smoke?” Keith frowned, eyebrows furrowing.

“We're flying in to investigate,” Takashi said, reassuring Keith. “It can't hurt to know things about the planet before we go in. Otherwise...” Takashi winced, thinking about Thaceryx. “We don't want to rush into something that could be bad.”

“Are you talking about Thaceryx? You're totally talking about Thaceryx.” Hunk sighed. “That place was _so creepy_. Worst horror movie ever. And I don't mean worst like bad, I mean worst like scariest place ever.”

“Eyes up, team, we're closing in.” Takashi paused as he straightened. “And don't worry, Hunk. We know what we're flying into.”

They reached the source of the smoke, flying over and past a sheer cliff drip. Twisting, Takashi spotted a city carved into the cliff face, parts of it destroyed or collapsed entirely. One section, the part the smoke was coming from, looked like it had been carved into. The smoke rose out of a hole at the bottom, one that went below the surface, and Takashi couldn't see clearly out of.

From the hole, and out of the smoke, came a lone fighter. Takashi tensed, keeping Black's scanners open for any other fighters. “We need to take that fighter down!”

“There could be others,” Keith growled. “Do we dive down? Take them out before they get out here?”

“No! We don't know the ground situation just yet. That smoke could be from the people here.” Allura's intensity faltered, as she fired at the incoming ship. Her shots went wide, and she growled in frustration. “But it is unusual to see one fighter ship.”

“I've got it!” Takashi fired at the fighter, clipping it in the wing and sending it spiraling down into the grass below. “Keep your eyes on that hole. If anything else hostile comes out, we take it down.”

“Uh, Shiro? The grass is moving.” Hunk was staring down below, at the fighter, and Takashi and the others followed his gaze to the sea of red that overtook the fighter, crawling out of the grass.

“I don't think that's grass, Hunk.” Pidge's eyes widened.

“They're right. That looks like... the locals you were talking about, Allura.” Keith leaned forward, likely looking something over on his screen. Takashi focused on Black's screen, and the view zoomed in, allowing him closer focus on the locals. They were massive, covered in red reed armor, with four arms that they used alongside their legs to move along the hull of the fighter.

“Let's land.” Takashi pulled Black down low, taking care to keep a safe distance from the downed fighter. “We'll meet with these Thalions. Maybe they can tell us what's going on.”

“Actually I believe they're called Thali, Shiro,” Coran chimed, sounding victorious. “I've managed to uncover that much. I'm still reading the file, but it seems that Altea has had past dealings with the Thali. Something about stabilizing the planet.” Coran hummed. “I wonder...”

“Keep looking, Coran.” Takashi set Black down, patting the controls before standing. “In the meantime, we'll go meet with the Thali. Let's go, team!”

* * *

The grass went halfway to Takashi's shoulder, and he had to scan carefully to find Keith, despite the grass only going up to Keith's chin.

“Converge on me.” Takashi paused. “Pidge? What's your visual?”

“Nothing. I see nothing but red. It's like I woke up with my head shoved up Keith's shirt again.” Pidge growled. “Hunk! Come give me a lift.”

“On it!” Hunk ambled over somewhere, bending down before he resurfaced, carrying Pidge on his shoulders.

“I might be tall, but now I can see over everything.” Pidge grinned. “Thank you, Hunk.”

“No problem!” Hunk grinned, patting Pidge on the leg. “You're a lot lighter than Coran. And that's a compliment. The guy might be tiny but he is _heavy_.”

“Hunk, you could probably bench press me, how is Coran any heavier than all this muscle?” Takashi held up his left arm, flexing just a bit for good measure. Hunk shrugged, jostling Pidge and making them cling to his head to keep from falling.

“Whoa. Sorry Pidge.” Hunk grinned, abashed, tilting his head so Pidge could see. Pidge patted Hunk on the head, giving him a small cat-like smile in forgiveness. Leveling his head out, Hunk gave Takashi a flat look. “Okay, he's not heavier than you, but I still had to get arrested because he wanted me to carry him on my shoulders so he could impersonate a sentry. Which, yes that was cool, but also I _never wanted to get arrested ever_. I think I deserve the right to complain.”

“Coran _is_ rather heavy,” Allura added, moving through the grass alongside Keith, only her eyes and the top half of her helmet visible. “And has a strange fascination with being carried. Oh, hold on.”

Allura stopped, and Takashi's eyebrows raised as she grew taller, until she was at least on level with Takashi's own height.

“Oh that's just not fair,” Pidge muttered. “Why do the Alteans get all the cool shapeshifting powers?”

“It's better than having Hunk stare at you in the morning because you might turn purple.” Keith nudged Hunk in the ribs, giving him a halfhearted glare. Hunk grinned, unrepentant.

“You never know! It could be like some kind of second puberty, where one day we wake up and you're taller than Shiro with big pointy ears and purple skin.” Hunk nodded, looking Keith over. “I can see it already.”

“I agree with Hunk.” Pidge grinned. “Plus, we just like watching you sleep. You make the most adorable faces.”

Keith sputtered, flushing. Takashi wanted to rush to Keith's defense, but before he could do much more than open his mouth the grass around them was in motion. Keith spun, his sword materializing as Pidge and Hunk yelped, drawing their bayards.

“Hold on!” Takashi shared a look with Allura, pulling close with the others. “Don't attack.”

“Voltron!” someone cried out, and Takashi stared as a Thali stood up before them. They were taller than any Galra, Takashi gauged, standing around ten feet, with a scar that blinded one eye and long claws that tipped the fingers of all four hands. Beneath the armor was fur blacker than night, and looked sleek as silk. “You have come! Praise the makers.”

“We have. We got your distress signal.” Takashi glanced at Allura, and together they stepped forward. They glanced back behind the Thali, and saw the remains of the downed fighter, before more Thali rose from the grass. “What do you need our help with? It looks like you've got things under control here.”

“But we don't, Voltron!” the lead Thali wailed, wringing their hands. “The Galra have stolen so much from our sacred temple within the planet, and now they seek to steal the temple itself. You must help!”

“And Voltron will.” Allura straightened up, squaring her shoulders as she grew taller still, to match the height of the Thali. The Thali gasped, three hands coming up to cover their mouth while the fourth was pressed low to their chest. Takashi presumed that they were placing a hand over their heart.

“An Altean!” the Thali bowed. “Oh, we have been blessed indeed! I am Zenthar, high lord of my people. We have done much to combat the Galra but still we could not prevent them from stealing so much from our sacred temple. And after your people so graciously gifted it to us, making this planet for our people to live.”

Allura's brow furrowed, but she kept herself the picture of diplomacy. While it was clear to Takashi that she might not know what Zenthar was talking about, it was more important that they present to everyone the picture of professionalism. “Of course. We are here now, so your worries can be put to rest.”

“Thank you! Thank you.” Zenthar pulled up from the bow, looking at Allura like she had hung the moon. Even Takashi felt like it was a bit much, and tried to keep from grimacing. Allura's smile faltered, and she shrank down, until she was much closer to Takashi's height.

“So what happened over there?” Pidge asked, pointing at the smoke pluming up from the hole. “Is that were the Galra are?”

“And why aren't there more attacking?” Keith kept his gaze on their surroundings, his sword reverting back into a bayard. Pidge and Hunk held their own bayards close, while Takashi kept a hand close. The lack of presence already was enough to set him on edge. “Where are all the sentries?”

“Chased off,” Zenthar replied, beginning to lead the paladins toward the cliff. “We have fought hard, and within the last spicolian movement the last of their largest ships has left with their latest stolen parts of the sacred temple. Had you not arrived, Voltron, we feared they would return with reinforcements, and steal away our sacred temple for good.”

“Where are they now?” Takashi asked. Keith nodded at the hole.

“Down there, I bet.” Keith glanced at Zenthar. “That's where your temple is?”

“Yes. Yes it is.” Zenthar kept half his gaze on the smoke cloud as he spoke. “We have fought hard, but now you are here to save our temple!”

“We will.” Takashi stumbled as the ground shook, the smoke changing to a billow. “What was that?”

“Was that the Galra?” Hunk asked, looking around wildly. Pidge shook on his shoulders, twisting to look whichever way Hunk wasn't, before settling on squinting out toward the hole and source of the smoke.

“I don't think so.” Pidge pointed at the hole. “That light's from laser fire.”

“Someone's fighting?” Allura glanced at Zenthar. “Who?”

“Oh no. Kuvar!” Zenthar and the other Thali got down, charging toward the smoke on all sixes.

“What?” Takashi shared a glance with Hunk, before they all started running after the Thali. Pidge bounced on Hunk's shoulders, before shifting so that their arms and legs were wrapped around Hunk's torso. As they got closer to the hole, Takashi could pick out the sound of blaster fire. Pidge was right; whoever Kuvar was, they were fighting the sentries down below.

Takashi slid to a stop, staring at the vast hole carved into the mountain, where the smoke was fading to a stop. The hole was massive, incredibly so, and Takashi guessed that they could easily fit at least the Green Lion down it. On the far side, through the fading smoke, Takashi spotted an platform elevator rising up, where the blaster fire was coming from.

“What's happening?” Hunk asked, letting Pidge down. He looked out at the rising platform, then over at Zenthar. “Is that Kuvar? Is this a prison escape?”

“Kuvar is my disciple. She is the next in line for the title of high lord.” Zenthar kept his gaze on the platform, where Takashi could now see three Thali bouncing around a dozen sentries. “She has been recklessly attacking the Galra in defense of the temple, provoking them in all manner of ways.”

Takashi nodded, his mouth thinning. “Let's go, team. We'll help Kuvar and then go down to save the temple.”

“Got it!” Keith leaped out, activating his jet boosters to fly out the abyss and toward the platform. Keith's sword was already drawn, and Takashi followed after with the rest of the team.

His bayard materialized, and Takashi landed with a roll, lance spinning and cutting through one of the sentries. Hunk landed nearby, and began laying down cover fire, diverting the sentries attention away from the trio of Thali and toward the paladins. Keith and Allura were moving in tandem, their sword and whip making quick work of three sentries. Pidge stuck close to Hunk, using their bayard to take down two sentries that threatened to get close.

Takashi felt his bayard change as he charged, transforming into a blade that he used to slice another sentry in half. Another sentry, wielding a blade, charged at Takashi, and he ducked low, kicking it right into Hunk's line of fire. Takashi used the momentum to cut another sentry at the knees, lunging forward to stab it and cut it in half. Behind him, Pidge and Hunk took out three more of the sentries.

Down the platform, Keith cut down one of the last two sentries, while Allura used her whip to fling the final sentry over the side of the platform, where it felt down into the black.

“Good work, team!” Takashi called, letting his sword dematerialize into his bayard. He looked over at the Thali, and one in particular went along to the others. “You must be Kuvar.”

The Thali straightened, looking everyone over. Kuvar was more muscular than Zenthar, and had thick tusks that protruded out of her bottom lip.

“I am,” she said, her gaze stopping on Allura for a moment before settling on Takashi. “You are Voltron.”

“We're here to help.” Takashi gestured at his team. “What do you know about the situation?”

“I have been spying on the operations to destroy the sacred temple for several spicolian movements now.” Kuvar glanced down at the hole reproachfully. “It is not enough that the Galra sought to take from the temple but now they seek to destroy the temple itself! They have in their possession explosives that they were going to plant around and within the temple. My fellows and I were able to disrupt their plans but were forced to retreat. Voltron, you are known to work miracles. Please, save our sacred temple.” Kuvar looked directly at Allura. “You are Altean. You understand how important the sacred temple is to us.”

Allura nodded. “I do. Return to Zenthar, inform him of this development. We will save the sacred temple.”

The platform stopped, a particle barrier forming as a bridge, connecting the platform with the far edge of the hole. Kuvar and her fellow Thali bound across it on all sixes, and as soon as they were clear Pidge was at the far end of the platform with Hunk, the two of them digging at the access panels and hot-wiring the platform.

“ _Do_ you understand?” Takashi asked, stepping close. The bridge vanished, and together Takashi and Allura stepped back from the edge as the platform jolted into motion. “Because this feels like we're missing a lot of information.”

“I feel the same.” Allura furrowed her brow. “Coran? Have you made any progress finding any information about Thaliar?”

“Some, Princess.” Coran coughed. “It seems that a ship was sent to help them, although no details are mentioned about which ship.”

“So that's the sacred temple!” Pidge moved away from the access panel, hopping over downed sentries with their arms outstretched.

“But how did it get so deep underground?” Hunk asked, shuffling over to peer over the edge. “This looks like it goes down _deep_. Like, down to the core deep. Do you think it crashed and that's what caused this big hole?”

“No. The walls look too clean. This isn't a natural cave.” Keith paused when everyone stared at him, baffled. “What? I spent most of a year studying that stupid cave we found the Blue Lion in. I learned a lot about caves to figure out what was going on. Mostly how to tell what was natural and what wasn't.” Keith gestured at the walls around them, what little wasn't covered in technology. “The sides are too clean to be natural.”

“Dude,” Hunk breathed, smiling. “That's so cool.”

Keith blinked, before nodding, a slow smile growing on his face. “Yeah. It really is. Some of it was cool, like the geology stuff. Other parts were interesting, because the local legends were well preserved. That's how I knew that the carvings were talking about the Blue Lion.”

“Huh. What else did they talk about? How did it fit into the local culture?” Pidge's eyes gleamed with interest. Allura looked interested despite herself, leaning in alongside Pidge to stare expectantly at Keith. Takashi cleared his throat, having to be the voice of reason.

“Let's get back on point.” Takashi gently nudged Keith, offering everyone a stern but reassuring smile. “You can talk all about Earth history back on the Castle. We've got a temple to save.”

“Oh yeah! We do!” Hunk set his face into serious mode, his brows coming down and a hard glint sharpening his eyes. He raised his bayard, the cannon materializing in his hands. “Nobody else is losing their homes on our watch. _Or_ their history.”

Everyone else raised their bayards, faces set and ready for a battle. Takashi's own bayard felt heavy in his hands, the black coloring almost gleaming off of his lance. It reminded him that he was the leader, still, that he was the one tasked with guiding his team, his family.

“Alright, team, our first priority is ensuring this temple isn't harmed any more.” Takashi glanced around, eyes settling on Pidge and Hunk. “We know that they have bombs, do we have any ideas?”

“I could diffuse them?” Hunk offered, already looking like he didn't want to do that. “Like, they're bombs, but if I can take a look at how they're structured then I can figure out how they're powered and cut all the power. Unless they've got remote activation, or are already active and waiting for the detonation signal.”

“I'll have to go with Hunk.” Pidge nodded. “I can track and intercept any signals, and while Hunk's cutting the power I can hack them and switch it all from active to inactive. We'll be pretty busy, though, so if there's any fighting we can't help.”

“You'll need somebody to go with to defend you, in that case.” Takashi weighed the options, of who to have stationed to defend Pidge and Hunk. His first instinct was Allura, since he was more familiar with fighting alongside Keith than the princess, but her own versatility in battle couldn't be ignored. They were entering a situation blind, and needed restraint. And while Takashi trusted Keith, trust all of them, with his life, he knew that Keith could be too impulsive to get the job done.

“I can do it.” Keith nodded, lowering his sword. “I'll keep you safe. Shiro and Allura can take on most of the sentries, and whoever is stationed here.”

“Once we're done, we can join up with you.” Hunk grinned, sharing a fond look with Pidge. “Together, we can do anything together. It shouldn't take long to disarm the bombs.”

“Especially with Keith protecting us.” Pidge shared their own grin. “If all else fails, we can just have him stab all the bombs until they're nothing but scrap.”

“I'm not stabbing any bombs!” Keith protested, before relenting. “Not unless I know that I can get away with not getting blown up.”

Takashi nodded, glad and proud that Keith was learning his own way of restraint, and that Hunk was finding his own bravery, and Pidge was opening up and trusting in their family here. They were all growing, becoming fine people. Takashi felt so proud of his family.

The platform slowed, and Takashi's grip on his lance tightened, to the point where he was sure it was a white-knuckle grip for his left hand, at least.

“Keep the plan in mind.” Takashi's eyes narrowed, as a dull purple glow came up from below. “We need to treat this like the Balmera.”

“We cannot afford to bring any more destruction to this sacred temple,” Allura agreed, wrapping her whip around her opposite forearm and letting the end dangle off it.

The platform drew lower, entering the cave. Purple light shone through it from artificial structures spread throughout the massive cave, large enough at least to hold Voltron. Despite the stalactites dripping down from the ceiling, the cave was domed, with the ground itself gently rolling, uneven enough that Takashi could see how the stalagmites had been razed for the empire to better reach and steal from the temple.

The temple itself was indeed a ship. Takashi could see the Altean design in it, where he could. Sleek lines and the silver-white coloring, it was shaped like a circle, with an empty space in the middle. Ultimately, it was torn away, entire pieces of it stripped until it looked like bone through which Takashi could see the shadows of the far end of the cavern. No doubt that it was once splendid to behold, but now it looked saddened, withered away by the empire.

The platform landed atop a rocky ledge, the remains of a massive stalagmite, where boxes were stacked around and bore the marks of blaster fire. To one side, just beyond the platform, Takashi spotted the crushed remains of the sentry Allura had tossed over the edge far above. Craters surrounded them, and from one the last embers of smoke could be seen. Movement could be spotted below, near the temple.

Takashi nodded at Pidge and Hunk, who tapped Keith on the shoulder and gestured for him to follow.

“Go,” Takashi said. “We'll keep whoever is still down here distracted. No matter what, disarming those bombs are the priority.”

“That looks familiar.” Allura asked, her voice small but carrying through the air. “It looks familiar, but I cannot place it.” After a moment, she gasped. “Oh! It's an Altean colony ship.”

“Colonizing?” Hunk sounded strangled, while Takashi gaped at Allura. “Alteans were colonizers?”

“I don't know what you mean by that.” Allura stopped to give Hunk a confused glare, before turning her rapidly chilling gaze upon the smoke. “Altean colony ships are outfitted with terraforming devices, meant to stabilize and alter the physiology of planets to nurture life.”

“Oh. Okay.” Hunk nodded. “That's totally different than the Earth version of colonizing.”

“I think we can call the empire as the kind of colonizing we're all used to.” Keith glanced at Allura, frowning. “At least, the Galra under Zarkon's rule are like that.”

“We can get into this later.” Takashi nodded at the smoke. “Pidge, Hunk, Keith. Go there, find what bombs weren't destroyed and disarm them. Allura and I will go down and distract the Galra.”

“They destroyed it.” Allura's voice carried a chill that cut, and sent shivers along the back of Takashi's neck. “They _violated_ this sacred place, razing it for their own gain.”

“Allura, calm down.” Takashi shared a glance with Keith. “We're working to stop it. Remember that.”

“I remember,” Allura growled, before racing along, toward the ship and the Galra below. Takashi clenched his jaw, running after her.

“Quiznack!” He glanced back at Keith, Pidge, and Hunk. “Go! Disarm the bombs. I've got Allura.”

Keith nodded, nudging Hunk as he and Pidge began to run toward the dissipating smoke. Takashi, meanwhile, was trailing after Allura, half running, half sliding down the ledge and toward the movement.

He spotted a trio of sentry bots, all on their way up, and barely caught up with Allura when her whip lashed out, slicing through one of the sentries before wrapping around another. With a hard jerk, Allura yanked the captured sentry into the other one, smashing them together.

Takashi followed along, swept up in Allura's flow. The sounds of blaster fire had alerted the other sentries, and together Takashi and Allura rushed into the fray. At the bottom of the crater, just before the edges of the temple ruins, Takashi spotted a dozen sentries, all surrounding a gaunt-looking Galra, dressed in the orange commander's armor.

“Voltron!” the commander snarled, grabbing one of the sentries and all but throwing it at Takashi and Allura. “Don't just stand there, kill them!”

Allura grew in size as she flung her whip out ahead of her, twirling it to block the incoming blaster fire. Takashi felt his lance shift, the bayard glowing as it swapped into something more defensive, becoming a shield. Keeping his head low, Takashi used the shield to ram into a pair of sentries, while Allura used both her whip and her strength to tear apart another two. Reaching around, Takashi grabbed one of the fallen blasters, whirling it up and firing out at the group of sentries, taking out one and incapacitating three more. For good measure, Takashi fired point blank at the two downed sentries.

Bayard shifting once more, Takashi dropped the blaster, swinging the sword and slicing into a trio of sentries. He grabbed one, pulling it close and shoving the sword into and through it, using it as a makeshift shield while he charged, stabbing a fourth sentry. Takashi sliced to the side, cutting his way out of both sentries, and turned toward the rest of the battle.

A quick glance at Allura showed that she had wrapped her whip around the torso of a sentry and was using it as a blunt instrument, flinging it into four other sentries before it fell apart from the strain.

The commander and one sentry were left, and Takashi felt his odds were good. If they took out the commander here, then all that was left was Pidge and Hunk's part, where he had no doubts of their quick success.

“You cannot defeat me here,” the commander snarled, pointing a small blaster at them. A jagged-looking blade came out of it, and he grinned. “I am Commander Ragnor. I have killed thousands of rebels before you, and shall kill thousands more before my glorious death on the field of battle. It doesn't matter that you have bested our Lord Emperor. You die today.”

“No.” Allura snarled, shifting back to her original size. “No more death.”

“An Altean?” Ragnor's grin turned more vicious, more fanged. His eyes slid over to Takashi, and they gleamed in recognition. “And that arena champion. The prisoner's hope. It seems my quintant has brightened. I shall kill the last Altean, quash all hope, and see Voltron is rendered immobile. The High Priestess shall surely reward me with an upgrade, if I present your bodies to her.”

Takashi felt the bayard shift from a sword to his more familiar lance, and gripped it tight. “No one dies here. Surrender.”

“Victory or death!” Ragnor yelled, picking up the sentry and throwing it at Allura. She spun her whip, catching the sentry and using its momentum to smash it against the ground. Takashi almost missed Ragnor charging at him, holding up his lance defensively. Within the blink of an eye it transformed back into a shield, blocking Ragnor's lunge.

The force of Ragnor's attack was enough to cause Takashi to slide back, although his footing remained firm.

“I will kill you,” Ragnar screamed, glaring from Allura to Takashi in rage. “I will slaughter you, and it will be glorious. Oh, how I have wanted to feel the elation of killing an Altean. Who could have thought that I would also slaughter the champion as well.”

Allura's whip flashed, wrapping around Ragnor. She let out a guttural scream, yanking and dragging Ragnor away from Takashi and off his feet. She charged as Takashi adjusted his balance, jumping over Ragnor and using all of her strength to lift him up, catapulting him with her whip overhead and into a far pillar. Takashi stared, wincing at the sound of crunching rock, and at the dent that Ragnor had made.

“Whoa.” Takashi and Allura whirled, spotting Keith staring over at the downed commander. He glanced down at them, then pointed at Ragnor with his sword. “Should we even go after him?”

“I vote yes!” Hunk called out, and appeared next to Keith, carrying Pidge. “Oh. Hey guys!”

“We stopped the bombs!” Pidge grinned, waving their arms. “It was probably the easiest thing we had to do. They weren't even primed. Keith even helped, once we showed him how it worked.”

“It really wasn't that hard.” Keith snorted. “I think hot-wiring a car back on Earth is easier. We just had to disconnect some wires.”

“It was like the opposite of the movies.” Hunk's grin was huge, and infectious. “No surprise countdowns or tension that makes me cry.”

“That's good.” Takashi glanced at Allura, who was staring at the temple. “Allura?”

“Yes.” Allura tore her gaze away, giving Takashi and the other paladins an insincere smile. “Of course. Now that the threats have been dealt with, we can contact Zenthar and the Thali can begin rebuilding.” Her smile faded, her gaze returning to the temple. “However they can do so.”

Takashi let out a sigh, moving to place a reassuring hand on Allura's shoulder. Without a word, Hunk and Keith came close, reaching out as well. Pidge even placed a hand atop Allura's head from their position on Hunk's shoulders.

“It's okay, Allura.” Hunk looked over the temple, wincing at the patches where sections of metal were ripped away. “This isn't the end of their world. We stopped that guy from blowing it up, so at the very least we preserved enough that they can try to rebuild from there.”

“This isn't just the history of the Thali,” Allura said, her voice quiet. “This is the history of Altea. This is two cultures that have been ravaged.”

“But they aren't gone.” Takashi shared a look with Hunk, who nodded and pulled Allura into a hug. “You're here. And Coran. And the Thali are still here too. Your culture isn't gone, not until there's no one left to celebrate it. And so long as someone is alive to remember it, Altea still lives.”

“It is still savage.” Allura reached up, gently gripping Hunk's arms. “How could they do this. Destroying someone's culture.”

“It's called colonizing.” Hunk's voice was quiet, low, and resonated with Shiro. “Back on Earth, it means that one people see themselves as better, and that all others are lesser, so they need to be converted into the superior culture. It happened a lot through history, and it still affects our whole world even to this day.”

“We've made strides forward, though,” Takashi added. “A lot of them. Things were bad for a long time, and we're still unlearning a lot of the toxic ways that were forced on us, but we're a lot better than we were before.”

“If my culture can survive all that, then so can yours, Allura.” Hunk smiled.

Allura looked around, at all of them, and the hard set of her brow loosened, the corners of her lips curling into a smile. “You're right. It is just that seeing this struck me in a way that little else has. Ten kilopheebs is an unfathomably long time. Losing Father's memory core, waking to you, crossing paths with Zarkon, all of it hurt, but this hurt the most.” She looked at the temple. “This is a piece of Altea, one that cannot be replaced, as much as it it a piece of Thaliar. I still cannot imagine that Altea is _gone_ , even though I know it to be as true as you standing before me, but this– this has brought me closer to that understanding.”

Takashi could do nothing but nod. He wanted to apologize, wanted to tell her that everything would be alright, but he couldn't. For once, he was at a loss for words.

“It's rough,” Keith said, surprising everyone. “Feeling like you've lost everything. _Actually_ losing everything. I know how it feels, and Allura? It sucks. It's a load of quiznack.”

Allura winced, and even Takashi could tell that that wasn't the correct usage of the word.

“Real cheery, Keith.” Hunk's tone was flat as paper. “What other nuggets of wisdom do you have to share?”

“My point is that it sucks, and it hurts, but it's not the end.” Keith shrugged, awkwardly joining in on the hug for a moment. “I thought it when my dad vanished, and when I thought Shiro died, but I'm still here. And so is Shiro. For all we know, we could come across some secret surviving Alteans. But even if we don't, you've still got us.”

“Yeah!” Pidge grinned, before something caught there attention. “Uh, guys? I think that commander guy is still alive.”

Takashi froze, staring at Allura who looked determined. Hunk loosened his grip, and Allura stepped forward.

“Why don't we try sending him somewhere.” Takashi glanced at Pidge and Hunk. “If there's a functional ship here, we could fix that up.”

“And shove him through a wormhole.” Keith grinned. “I like that plan.”

* * *

Ultimately, they were able to fix up the downed fighter, and almost as soon as Coran landed the Castle Ragnor, bound and gagged, was sent through a wormhole and far away. Allura assured Takashi that Ragnor wasn't bound for a black hole, or a supernova, or even a one way ticket to a star.

With that done, Takashi could do little but join with everyone as the Thali celebrated the victory, and laughed as Kuvar told stories of what was done in defense against the empire. Keith and Pidge were sharing tales of their own adventures, with Hunk chiming in here and there as he shared some recipes and asked after the Thali's own food. Coran as well joined in, performing...

Takashi honestly couldn't figure out what Coran was doing, but he best figured the Altean was retelling some stories of his youth, from the way he kept striking heroic poses. The Thali were enthralled by it all, and soon everyone was watching and listening in as Coran spoke of the time he and Alfor went after klanmuirls for their tears.

Allura stood at Takashi's side, laughing when Coran made a particularly exaggerated gesture with his bottom and talking about how Alfor's role was to seduce and break the hearts of an entire gaggle of klanmuirls.

“See?” Takashi nodded at the group. “Altea isn't as far gone as you think. We're all willing to keep it alive, Allura. It doesn't just have to be you and Coran.”

Allura smiled, and let out a bit of laughter when Takashi gently needled her with his elbow. “You're right. Thank you, Shiro. Altea is not truly as gone, so long as we are here.” She nodded at Coran. “And I have not heard this tale. Father liked to say that _Coran_ was always the one to seduce the klanmuirls. Something about how no one but he could perform the proper mating dance.”

Coran threw his arms up, bawling massive crocodile tears, before bouncing to show how terrified he and Alfor were, before they leapt into action gathering the tears.

“Nothing is ever truly gone,” Takashi said. “Not so long as it lives on in your heart.”

It was something Takashi believed since he was small, that nothing and no one ever truly left so long as they had a place in someone's heart.

“That gives me hope, that Altea can see its justice. And that it can see its peace.” Allura smiled, laughing as Coran's story came to an end. Laughing, Takashi couldn't agree more. It carried hope in him, too, and allowed him to spread that hope to others. And in that, Takashi could find no greater thing to be than a Paladin, spreading hope everywhere he went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the next chapter won't take half as long as it took to get this chapter done.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, if I'd known that there was going to be a timeskip I'd have started this a month ago...
> 
> ANYWAY KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE APHELION ZINE IT'S AWESOME AND AMAZING AND I HAVE A FIC IN IT


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